Stronger Together
by C. M. Spinks
Summary: Celestia and Luna decide to upgrade Ponyville's guard, forcing two ponies to cross paths, an unlikely guard named Presstissimo Echo and a skilled forge mare named Copper Wind. Unbeknownst to them, the forces of the world are stirring, and the world is about to change, forever. Together, they'll protect Twilight and the Elements of Harmony, and discover their pasts' secrets.
1. Prologue

Prologue:

The world around me is small, cramped. At least compared to the one I used to occupy. This one is like a bubble, contained and confined to itself, though it does hang off the other. Or, rather, it hovers near the other one, its plane close to but not connecting with its counterpart. Ah, the glories of physics and its theories.

As much as contemplating my surroundings amuses me, which is very little, I have greater things to think about. My escape from said captivity. And what to do about those who will oppose me when I am free. I open a window from my place to the other, and find exactly who I want to find.

My mad brother, interacting with those gods forsaken ponies. He's been accepted by them and truly accepted them recently. I watch what he does from time to time; it amuses me. For, not only is he mad, he is delusional! He thinks he's found solace in friendship with the tiny equines, when he's only been truly tamed. I hate him for his weakness, for he has acted against me before. He aided our other brother and his mare in their attacks against me when I revealed I no longer wished to work _for _them. I growl in remembrance.

I also remember how, before he wiped his mind clean, he called into existence two ponies who would aid _him_ when I eventually returned. That time is coming soon, and I have been monitoring them as well. When they were young, I sent projections of myself to them, and attempted to break them before they could stand up to me. My power was so low, then, that I could do little more than terrify the one with nightmares and visions of pain and decimation and remove the wings from the other when she was still unfinished. Discord had put protective spells around them, but more on the male unicorn than the female pegasus, or would-be pegasus, rather. That is why I could only torment him, rather than take his unicorn magic in the womb. My projections lasted for only their foalhood years, and they only affected the unicorn, and then I decided I would hold onto and grow my remaining energy to escape my prison.

The ponies of Equestria do not know it, but their anger feeds me. Their battle lust fuels my magic. Their most recent years have provided me with almost all that I need. Soon, I will be able to interact with their world in much more tangible ways… which will only serve to fuel my magic even more.

I look at my brother, pulling strange pranks and stranger faces for the amusement of the ponies. His body is reminiscent of my own. I wonder if he based his form on me, after I left him alone on the mortal plane. Or maybe it was that last spell I leased on him… His form is more chaotic, as fits him, than mine. My limbs match each other, as do my horns. Similarly, my body is not segmented, though it is very, very long. He has bad posture, but I suppose that is not so important. I look at him, and I almost pity him. He has aged poorly, slightly, but poorly. He is insane, but I can see behind those crazed eyes exhaustion, misery, loneliness. Now that he knows friendship again, part of him can recognize that he missed it, although he only thinks he was missing it in that he never had it. For all that his memories are gone, truly eradicated, his fragile heart knows something. But I do not pity him. I have gone for longer with less, and I have made do perfectly well alone.

No, I cannot pity him, only hate him and wish him a terrible death. A tragic, drawn out, humiliating death. Him and his children of fate. I desire greatly to know why the unicorn had greater protection around him and why the female suffered. I suppose as he is dying, my brother, I can ask him. If they oppose me, I will make their deaths far more agonizing, but if after a warning they back down, I shall make it less so. I laugh. Their options are great pain and greater pain, and that amuses me. They are cornered and they don't even know it.

I release the window and relax backwards into my space. I conjure a weakly structured, at least on a molecular level, couch on which to recline. There's so little matter here for me to manipulate. But it serves my purpose well enough for now. Soon enough I'll be in the mortal plane, where I can manipulate so many things, so much more than a thousand handfuls of atoms. Soon, ponies, animals, plants and civilizations alike will be my puppets for the playing with. I'll send the world crashing down around their ears. I'll set off tiny nuclear explosions and see what sort of monstrosities climb out of the fall. I'll take the bratty princesses, my abominable nieces, and strip them of their magic so that they are little more than newborn foals and I will kill them as slowly as I shall kill my brother and his weapons. I will breed diseases of horrible, horrible pain against specific mixbreeds of ponies, and watch as the nation scrambles. I will do so much to them.

I will destroy them.

I yawn. I am tired of being awake, for now. I shall sleep, and dream of all the little ponies' deaths. Yes, what a pleasant dream that will be. And what a better reality.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

_One month ago: _

I knock on the door of the large crystalline palace-tree. It's an odd thing. It's something like the building style and structure of the buildings, and palace, of the Crystal Empire, but in the shape of a tree. I hear a call from one of the balconies, "Wait a second!" and then a burst of sound as somepony throws themselves through the doors and over the ledge. I flinch at the sounds, I'm not a fan of sudden noises. I prefer they all have an explanation and recognizable pattern. I regain composure as a purple shape flies down, and I see it's Princess Twilight Sparkle who lands in front of me.

"Sorry, I'm not used to my castle yet, it's, uh, it's pretty large." She says. I bow, as customary, but only a short one. I'm on business, after all. Formalities dictate that I need not over-postulate when on a business endeavor.

"Quite alright, your highness. My name is Presstissimo Echo, and I am here with business from Canterlot." I pull a set of papers out of my saddle bag with my magic. "Ahem, with all that's happened in Ponyville lately, both the princesses and the royal guard's heads agree that Ponyville's town watch be upgraded to a small, but formal guards unit. This is both for your personal protection, and for the general community's safety and up keeping of law." I hand the papers to her. They document everything.

"Oh, um. That's, well, I really think that's uncalled for. I am more than capable of protecting the town and myself. And the ponies here never break laws, and if there are any misdemeanors, they take it up with the mayor and a council of peers to discuss what wrong was done and how to compensate." She laughs. "I mean, Ponyville doesn't even have a town watch. We've never needed one!"

"Wait, you mean, you really mean, Ponyville has never, ever had a town watch?" I ask, raising a brow at her, incredulous.

"Well, during the founding and first several years, everypony had a hoof in keeping it safe. For a couple years, while it was still small, there was a wooden fence around the whole town. But once we ponies established a firm territory with consistent boundaries, the creatures of the forest stopped intruding, and we more or less made peace with them. After that, it was the typical struggle to balance daily needs, manipulate the weather to maximize the ecosystem's output, work required to tend crops, build houses, pave roads, and so on. There was no need for either a militia or a law enforcing group of ponies; everypony was too busy, too tired-"

"Excuse me, I'm sorry princess, but I'm not here for a history lesson. No wonder you didn't have any sort of assistance when, well, anything happened here! This town is in sore need of a guards force, I'm sure of it now." I thrust the papers in front of her face. "You need to read through these and authorize them."

"But I don't _want-_"

"No, no, no. No 'buts'. This is necessary for the good of Ponyville, even if you don't believe me. " I push her inside. I mean, these are the rules. Her seniors and the royal guard have, frankly, outvoted her. This is now something she _has_ to do. "Come on, let's make Celestia proud. I'll even help you. "

"Welp."

_Present day:_

Well, there's the beginnings of a barracks here in Ponyville. The majority of our unit won't arrive until there's more living space for us, and so far there's only about ten of us, and we're all staying at a hotel. I roll my eyes at the slow building process. Builders here in Ponyville promised it would take a month. It's already been two weeks, and having reviewed their blueprints, I know they're behind schedule. I've been trying to help with the process, by actually engaging in the building, and by keeping the builders _building_. It's frustrating that I'm here at all.

Higher ups thought it was so funny that I shanghaied the princess into authorizing a Ponyville guard that I should be sent here for duty myself. I had to leave before my dad cut the ribbon at the new Canterlot theatre. I had wanted to be there for his special recognition because it has been a while since he's gotten a promotion and privilege like that. I suppose that my older brother will be there for him, though all the while smiling silently and thinking how he still has no idea why I'm in the guard.

I'm serving under recently promoted Major Flash Sentry, requested and promoted by Princess Twilight Sparkle. He's not an unworthy commanding officer, from the days I've spent under him so far. He's very understanding, but also knows when he needs to stake his authority. When on-duty, there is no fooling around. And I like that. An officer that takes things seriously is one I can follow.

Today, we're all chipping in with the building, but it seems like it's going no faster than it was before we got here. We're keeping up a good pace, but we've not made any recovery of time. In other words, we're not on schedule. I keep asking myself what we're going to do when another twenty or more stallions and mares show up thinking there's a place for them to stay, and there's not? I don't know, and I don't like it. I can't imagine staying with them in the streets when my hotel fees aren't covered anymore, and personal bits can pay them either.

Thankfully, nothing's needed our attention in Ponyville besides this project. We usually only have two ponies making rounds at a time, because the other eight of us are here, working.

I wipe my sweaty forehead with a rag. Let it not be said that I am not a hard worker. I continue sawing lengths of wood, holding the strips down with my hooves and working the saw with my levitation. All around, everypony's working hard, and it makes me feel pretty great to know we're all so focused and dedicated. Maybe we can catch up to the projected time after all.

My hard-set pace is interrupted by Flash Sentry himself.

"Damn, I was supposed to meet the smiths at their forge today!" He face-hooves. Everypony chuckles. Except for me. This is the second time he's done this, this week. I let out a huff and make a mental note to set up yet another meeting with them. If he does this again, I swear I'll just do it myself! I huffily return to sawing the seemingly endless number of planks of wood. The lumber pony they hired to get this wood did an amazing job as far as selection goes. It's an incredibly hard oak, which I suppose is a great building material. I mean, if it's this difficult to saw, it must be very sturdy when organized into a building.

I check the clock. It's barely noon. At one, we have a lunch break, and some ponies will trade off with those on rounds, and at one-thirty we return to work. I take a deep breath, release it, and return to my deep focus on the matters at hoof. After this sawing is done, it'll probably be lunch time, and if not, there's at least some tidying of the site I could do.

Hours later, I finally finish my shift helping the construction ponies and head back to the hotel. My room is pretty amazing, with a view of the entire town and a path leading up to the everfree forest. The princesses and the mayor were more than accommodating when they worked together for soldier living arrangements. Unfortunately, we are still behind schedule and I have to leave with the other guards at noon tomorrow. The plans for the barracks calls for plenty of rooms, each just as nice as these but we won't get to live there until it's finished, so it's the streets for us tomorrow night. I'd be lying if I told my senior guards I was fine with this. It's one of the few things I'm accused of behaving like a foal in fear when facing them. I took out master criminal Vanishing Jack with only two other ponies, single hoofedly defended the chamber of Princess Luna when the changelings attacked but- I shudder. Darkness cripples me.

It's not like I'm a coward. I just.. I don't like the dark. My father and brother understand..they always have. They pay for it though. My father is told to be a stallion and not to baby me in the absence of my mother and my brothers luck with a special somepony hit rock bottom because of a rumor saying he's gay. All because they defend me and my one rational action to stay in after sunset. I am not afraid. Really, as wonderful as Princess Luna is right now, the dark still brings out too many dangerous things; robbers, gangs, vampire ponies, were-ponies, timber wolves.. I could go on about the dangers of the night. It really is just a smart move on my part.

I sigh, and unwillingly remember..

_I am thirteen years old and just getting over my foalhood monster, when I wake up to a simple scruffling in the kitchen. Naturally I go see if my folks are up early and need help with anything. Mother wakes up early sometimes and bakes us a special breakfast. She is spontaneous like that, and her cinnamon buns are the best.. I walk into the dark kitchen, and when I turn on the lights three ponies have her cornered. I call out and begin to charge them when a unicorn stallion levitates me up to the ceiling where I can see that my father is unconscious behind her .. he is, after all, just a normal earth pony.. My mother struggles in their grip, using her telekinetic magic to hit them with whatever she can find. Angry, they snap my mothers horn right off her head in front of me. Then they drop her and I to the floor and the leader says, "This is what happens when your dad made the wrong business partners. Make sure he remembers that, little colt." They leave and I can do nothing but try to stop her bleeding. The horn area is sturdy, but, but, this damage, it's too great. She's bleeding out, she's dying, she can't, no…_

_The Canterlot Guards arrive with my big brother, too late. She puts her hooves on our cheeks and tells us in a pained voice that she is so proud of her stallions and like that, it is over. _

To this day I know my brother regrets not getting help fast enough. … I'm still worried one night I'll wake up and they will be here, a cold blade to my neck as they pull my horn off. Father still doesn't know what the hell they meant by 'the wrong business partners'. He's never been involved in shady deals or whatever. We've always been financially sound, making their attack a stupid mistake. And so the pain we've all gone through has been enough, so all of the ponies out there giving my family garbage can shut it and if they don't, they should use a memory spell to see what we saw, feel what we've felt, and then they can try to tell us if they still feel that way.

I love my family .. I wish I could've brought them with me to Ponyville. I stare out the window and look down at the town. It amazes me how these ponies have lived without fear for so long, without protection, and right next to one of the most nationally feared places in the country. A cloud rolls over the moon and my room becomes pure darkness. I quickly perform a spell and a small red orb emits a fire-like light. Finally, I can sleep.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I check my bags into the station. There are many of them, and they are filled as much as I could stuff them with the tools of my trade. Metal working is very tool-needy, and I don't have the bits to make two or three rounds. As it is, checking all these bags into a single train compartment will be expensive enough, even with the money the government's giving me to move. I mean, I had to divvy it up somehow, and most of it's going into my rent and the upcoming construction bills. Ponyville has a small smithy already, but that's the problem. It's too small for the fourth of my old trade company that's moving in.

With the increase of guards ponies going to Ponyville to start the first unit of its own personal guard, and the fact that they don't have enough weaponry, armor, or training supplies to ship _with_ the ponies, I understand why we were chosen to move there. Considering _especially_ that there's a princess there now, it was coming. Ponyville is seated right next to the Everfree Forest, a place of wild magic, and somehow it's gotten along without even a town watch, but increased activity and the addition of one Chaos God has made the other two princesses reconsider not installing a unit there. And knowing the smithy is too small, currently, for all five of us new workers to live in, there will have to be a housing addition built on. Hence the expenses I'm going to face.

So here I am, a metalworker craftspony, on my way to boost the economy, starting a strange and unexpected journey across the country. I'm glad I'm going with a few of my co-workers at least. Bad enough I'm leaving my whole friend group, most of whom I know to be too busy to write. I suppose it'd be worse if I had a special somepony, but that's a different story.

As I wait in line I look at my ticket again. Again. I still can't completely believe I'm moving.

_Copper Wind- Ticket for One (1)_

_8:00 am. Departure_

_Ponyville bound Cutie Mark Express_

Yep. That's me, that's the time, and that's the train all my stuff is about to get loaded into. I'm definitely moving today. I returned the key to my apartment at my old smithy in this morning, packed up my remaining items, and left. I took a taxi to get here, what with all my stuff, and I just finished signing the paperwork for my bags. Now I'm in line to get _on_ the train that'll take me to my new home. Which will temporarily be a hotel room that I'll be sharing with one of my co-workers. I'm a little early, so I'm kind of by myself right now, but I'm sure they'll be on time and we'll ride together. Yes. This will definitely not be like the time I booked us a day at a fancy club for a celebration and they all showed up two and a half hours late, and tipsy. Nope, nothing like that at all.

I finally get to the front of the line, hand over my ticket, and am allowed to board. I nestle down in one of the seat-ish bed things, I've never ridden a train before by the way, and wait. Out of sheer boredom, I decide to undo one of my mane's smaller braids and redo it. My mane is pretty freaking long, so I braid it to keep it out of the way, rather than chop it of bi-monthly. I tried that once, but my hair just grows so quickly that it got real expensive, real quick. Braiding it when it reaches its maximum length just works the best. Because then I can scoop it into a bun or tie it tightly enough that it's too stiff to blow around or whatever. I look best this way, anyway. Short hair does not suit me at all..

As I fiddle with my hair, the time disappears, and I almost don't notice the train start to move. I look around, and to my eternal frustration, I am still alone. My co-workers are either late or on a different time, but I swear they were on the same timed train as me. I groan and throw my face into the bedding. This is probably the third or fourth time they've done this to me specifically. And on such an important occasion! Uggggh!

They're so frustrating, I mean, they're really great friends and people to work with, we get along fine, except when they ditch me like this! Unless somepony is very specifically keeping them on track, they lose sense of time and then _this_ happens. Our manager or I, or one of the others that's not coming, are usually the ones that keep the others on track. Obviously, I had too much faith in their ability to keep on track today, of all days. I roll over, sighing. It's a two hour drive from Manehatten to Ponyville; I might as well sleep. I tuck my legs in close, close my eyes, and let my exhaustion from the busy morning take me over.

When I awake, we're just pulling into Ponyville. I get up, stretch my legs, and trot out the nearest door, once we've pulled to a complete stop, of course. I get outside, and find a small party waiting for me. You know, the group of people who show up at the station with a sign with your name on it? Yeah, one of those. They've got the other four ponies' names too, but seeing as they're not here, I'm going to pretend this is all for me.

The two ponies are the owners of the smithy, a married couple. A mister Forgery and a missus Iron Casting. Forgery is a big, muscly dark brown earth pony stallion with lots of scars on his hooves, _a lot like mine_, and graying, but only recently, mane and tail. Iron Casting is a small unicorn mare, with a naturally gray mane and tail, cut in a bob, and a pale yellow-ish coat. She's well built, like her husband, but it's kind of obvious she uses her magic more than her muscles, whereas he has only his muscles. I've only got out of my apprenticeship recently, so my own physique is much like hers, though I anticipate I'll out brawn her soon enough. I smile and trot up, by myself. They meet my smile and trot to meet me.

"Hi!" Iron Casting calls out, putting the sign down. She gives me a quick, light hug, but then looks around me. "Where's the rest of the gang?"

"Aheh, well, they tend to get lost in the heat of the moment, so to say, and they tend to be late for things. They missed the train." I shrug, a little embarrassed. "But, they do tend to get lost in their work too, so it's not all bad, you know?" They nod. "Anyway, I'm Copper Wind, and you must be our new masters of the forge?" I extend my hoof, even though Iron Casting has already given me a hug. Forgery shakes my hoof, and his grip is amazing and gruff. I struggle to meet his strength even halfway.

"Good grip you've got there, kiddo. Yeah, we're the masters of the forge. Rules 'n such should be pretty similar. No running around the forge, free projects only after work projects 'r done and with your own materials, no working without safety gear, no visitors _in_ the forge room, yadda yadda."

"Got it. Generally, don't be stupid." I nod.

"You've got it. Now, we can specify rules 'n things later, we should help you move your stuff to the forge 'n wherever you're gonna stay."

"Well, now that I think about it, dear, she could have the extra room."

"Extra room?" I ask.

"We have one extra room in our house, you know, connected to the smithy, and we were going to hold something of a contest to see who'd get it, testing to see who's most responsible and such, but seeing as you're the only pony on time, you're kind of automatically most responsible." She elaborates.

"Yeah. It sucks for them, not being on time, cheatin' themselves of a free room. Or, least it's a cheaper room." He amends. "It'll make showing you 'round a lot easier, too. Less places to hit up."

"Oh, thank you! I, wow, I don't know what to say!" This changes so much! I can reroute some of my expenses now, and, well, I don't know. Money won't be so tight now, though.

"You've already said thanks, so just tell us where your bags are, and we'll start moving." Iron Casting says with a small, but pleasant, smile.

"Oh, but there's a lot. I was responsible for a lot of our incoming materials, at least that we were allowed to take from the Manehatten smithy, so I have a lot of baggage." As I speak, Forgery pulls up a cart that was, somehow, hidden behind him. "Oh, well, it's this way, then." I smile and point them to the last carriage. I see most of it piling up already. I go to start the heavy lifting, I mean I've got twelve or so _large_ bags, but Iron Casting starts telekinesising, I mean, levitating, a couple of them at a time. I only manage to get a couple of my own on before she's got them all. Her magic is potently powerful, at least at lifting. I'll be honest, I don't know a lot about magic, except for my own, uh, earth pony magic and the basics of pegasi weather magic. Most all of unicorn magic is unknown to me.. I'll have to ask about it sometime.

"Alright, this way to home sweet home." Iron says, not even tired looking. I try not to gape my mouth as I follow.

The forge and adjacent house are far from Ponyville and to the north. We apparently mark the northernmost edge of the town's limits, and that's cool in theory. But we're close to the Everfree forest here, and if we aren't careful locking up at night, I'm told, we could get visits from creatures who think open doors mean invitations. I make sure to remember to lock up whenever it's my job to, if that ever becomes a thing. We're so far out that even the road is a little less paved and a little more dirt. It never subsides into completely not-road, but there're parts where some maintenance would help with that. Suffice to say it gets a little difficult at some places to maneuver or shove the cart full of heavy equipment and ores and ingots and whatever else I've forgotten I've packed. I do have some clothes, but that's the lightest thing I've got.

Well, we manage to get all the stuff, cart and all, in one piece to the forge-house. The main entrance is actually _through _the forge, though, so my tour of the house will be a short one. Forgery goes ahead and flicks on the lights, they were one of the first in the past decade to be fitted with electrical lights I'm fondly told, and as Iron and I push and shove the cart we hear him make a very grumbly angry kind of sound. Iron abandons the cart, and shortly after so do I. I find the forge to be homey in the way only a forge can be, but also currently decorated with one long streamer and a bright pink mare standing there with a cake. I turn up an eyebrow at this, but don't immediately say anything. Forgery quickly goes from making inaudible, un-equine sounds to those of words.

"Pinkie, I swear we've told you 'fore that there're to be no parties in the forge room!" He tries very hard not to yell, but at the end there, his voice rises.

"I know! This isn't a party though, it's a not-party!" Pinkie smiles widely before continuing. "I mean, I _had_ to celebrate the arrival of five new ponies, and since you gave me a heads up about it, I figured I'd show up with a cake and a not-party, with no invited guests, just to say hi! I can throw a real party later, and then it won't be a scary surprise, in case somepony is scared of surprises, and we can celebrate being new friends!" Forgery looks around, and after Iron places a hoof on his shoulder, he sighs and smiles.

"You can have your not-party, then. But at least let's have it in the _house_ part of the building?" He shakes his head and trots over to the _cast iron_ door, pushing the well-balanced wonder easily open. Inside is a whole different look; an utter mess. Like icing has been thrown out all over the place. "What in the name of Celestia's beard?!"

"Now, now, it's rude to swear on things that don't exist!" A charming but odd voice calls out. A strange not-pony head pops out, followed by a long body with mis-matching segments and unique limbs, the higher two of which are stirring a bowl of something bright orange and yellow. I feel as though I recognize him, but from what or where I've no clue. Forgery goes from upset to confused to slightly miffed in a few short seconds.

"Pinkie!" He turns on the earth pony mare.

"It wasn't me, I didn't invite nopony! Or draconequus! I swear!" She does an odd thing with her hooves which ends with her poking her own eye.

"It's true, I showed up to help with the not-party, but uninvited. I thought to surprise you all." His mad eyes do a dilly-dally around in their sockets, like he's looking around at the mess he's made. "Though I've never been the best at cooking.." He makes a face like he's both contemplating and squirming, then exclaims, "Oh, well I shall just have to put everything back the way I found it!" I'm quite confused as he snaps his fingers and instantaneously everything is clean, as I presume it was before. "Pardon me, for the intrusion, I'll just be on my way." He starts to walk out, but on the ceiling, but he stops when he sees me.

"Uh, hello." I say, trying not to stare at his conglomerate self. He doesn't say anything, just sort of stares at me while upside down. I look to the other three ponies in the room, but they all seem lost too. As the moment continues I loudly harrumph and extend my hoof, hoping to jumpstart some normalcy.

"Oh, forgive my rudeness, don't know what came over me!" He says, shaking my hoof wildly. "Welcome to Tiny-horse-ville, have a nice stay. I'll probably be seeing you." He says before he actually leaves, and out the front door. I get the feeling he could have done something wacky, like turn into a puddle and evaporate away. When he's gone, I turn to the others, shrugging.  
>"I promise I did not invite him to the not-party, but you have to admit, that was interesting!" Pinkie says, her smile quickly returned.<p>

"Interesting indeed." I say, feeling just a bit weirded out. "Anyway, how about that cake?" I move the conversation away from that which just occurred. Iron responds,

"We can have it now. Later, we can discuss plans for tomorrow, and finish the tour of the house, and maybe Ponyville." She ushers us all inside after that, and pulls my luggage into the forge with one magic heft, and I find myself enjoying a particularly wonderful slice of cake, despite the fact that cake isn't my favorite treat. After that, everypony chats around the table, and I slowly get a feel for the way this is going to work. I think it'll be nice, living here.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

We are almost done with the barracks when the train comes in with the rest of the assigned guards. On a technical level it is suited for living in, but it's not officially done, and therefore unsafe and our hotel waivers will have run out as of noon today, so streets it is. The universe just loves making me miserable with these things.. maybe it won't be so bad, I mean I'm with others and we are guard units. Not to mention it's a safe town normally.. But I still can't stand staying out at night; it makes me feel vulnerable and defenseless. I pace around the barracks making sure everypony is doing their work efficiently even though I will likely end up working on the structure myself again. My mind races at the thought of being on the streets tonight. Maybe I can find a late night shop to stay in instead. I really need some water to cool down and stay calm right now. As it's technically my break, I trot over and get some refreshing water and some oats. It's strange tasting, I've never had normal oats, they are always seasoned or spiced in Canterlot. I don't think I care for them so plain. But I finish my snack and turn around to find a grey mutant dragon staring me down with a snaggle tooth grin.

Sweet mercy of Harmony, it's real…creatures like this are real! Everypony seems uneasy and distraught and upset**,** charging at the beast but he just teleports or _dances _and avoids any of the hits.  
>He pops up inches from my face and says, "Hello you're one of the new guards, how delightful!"<br>Oh no he must be targeting officers! I should run, I should move, get away. No, I don't have time, he's so close. I don't know what to do! I panic and shake a little. Should I run? Should I fight? I can't think, can't decide! My world gets fuzzy, and when it becomes clear again, I'm not at the construction site anymore. I must have blacked out.

I look around, find I am at the town hall and am surrounded by several ponies, one of which is Major Sentry, and that _thing_ that brings me back to horrible memories and dreams that I'd _thought_ I'd forgotten. The mayor is here, as well as several unknown ponies, all of which are listening to it with stern faces.  
>The face of the beast is so scared and apologetic, his ears tucked and his yellow eyes pleading as he puts his claws together and kneels, "I swear! I didn't touch him! I didn't – I don't know what happened, I just wanted to say hi, after all I've been socializing with my dear Fluttershy and our friends so much, I just wanted to introduce myself. Pinkie Pie must be rubbing off on me, she must be contagious." He sneezes and a ball of curly, crazy cotton candy pink hair poofs on his head with a weak and scared smile plastered to his face, "I'm a good guy, honest." A halo forms around his new hairdo which is slightly amusing due to the fact his horns are sticking out of the hair at the same time. This creature, whoever or whatever he was, is not to be feared. I have to do something. After all, I am the one who overreacted.<br>I get up, shakily, and stand between him and the Major and the mayor and try to speak formally, "Pardon me, sir and ma'am, I am terribly sorry for the misunderstanding. I was only startled and must have passed out from the mixture of surprise and dehydration." Short as it is, I can't think of what else I can do to explain. Truthfully, I am still dehydrated and exhausted.  
>Major Flash Sentry raises a brow at me and then looks to the thing before returning his gaze to mine, and then once again to it- I mean, him. I stiffen. I am firm on this decision to defend him, even though he terrified me a moment ago. Flash Sentry converses with the mayor for a moment, then turns back, saying,<p>

"Fine, Discord you are free to go. Please, do not do this again, we've told you before the construction site is off limits and you have already caused us to be behind schedule by four days and now you've caused a fifth day!" He snorts as Discord rolls his eyes and promises crossing his claws without making an effort to hide the claws. I can't believe it. This is Discord, the God of Chaos. I feel like an idiot. I've heard stories and I was in the service of the guard when he went around with another monster, Tirek, stealing magic and talents. I never saw him though. My family's magic was never stolen because we had all hid in our family's underground cellar. It wasn't my fault I didn't recognize him. Though I suppose it's still a disgrace not to recognize such a public figure, and not to respect him properly.  
>Discord squeaks and smiles again in delight, "Oh fine, fine, fine I won't bother you anymore, I really am sorry for the scare."<br>Flash Sentry snorts again, "Return the planks you stole!"  
>Discord crosses his arms, "Why I never. How dare you accuse me, I don't have any planks!" Three whole planks of oak suddenly appear in front of the mayor . I don't think anyone else noticed that under his breath he says, "Not anymore, anyway.". Then he laughs and says in a louder voice, "Maybe you should recount the stock, Flashy, and by the way, how <em>is<em> that weapon delivery going?"  
>Major Flash Sentry's eyes grow wide, "Shit! The Smiths, I'm supposed to meet them in 5 minutes! I'll never make it!" Discord bellows in laughter and disappears as I march over to my forgetful Major,<p>

"For the love of Starswirl! Sir, give me the papers! I'll go." Without waiting for the Major's response I levitate his papers out of his bags, always handy, and gallop away from them, in the direction of the near-finished barracks. Is that legal? I suppose I'll find out when and if I receive a disciplinary notice. I arrive at the back of the construction site and I see an attractive mare analyzing the wood and tools. She's a shining copper color, her eyes like bronze, her silver colored mane tied in various simple braids, one large heavy one, and several smaller.  
>I don't mean it but I blush and stutter as I clip my hooves together, standing at attention, and introduce myself, "H-hi, I am Sergeant Prestissimo Echo reporting on behalf of Major Flash Sentry to meet with the blacksmiths in regards to the- to the- …uh.." Oh no! I don't know what I'm meeting her for! Is it the amount of inventory, designs of the shields and weapons we want, how much we pay them?<br>The mare looks at me with a smile and her eyes give me pity. I must seem so pathetic right now, it's sad. She gives a small chuckle before informing me,

"You are here to talk about how much and what kind of equipment you'll be needing in the future. Specifically, weaponry, armor, and training equipment. I'm also here to discuss what kind of thing we the smiths have a hoof in. And I presume that you're not who was _originally_ going to be here." She raises an eyebrow, teasing.

"No ma'am, Major Sentry um..became otherwise occupied." I try to seem as in control of the situation as possible. If I tried hard enough I could probably fake my way out of this. She nods.

"He forgot again, right? Forgery said he'd done that a couple of times this week. Funny, because Forgery and Iron Casting got a bit busy today themselves. The rest of my, uh, crew finally arrived, and as masters of the forge, they felt they needed to show them around and help with their bags." She stops for a moment, shuffling around in her saddlebag that I had not previously noticed. "Anyway, I'm Copper Wind, and _I_ know what we need to talk about."

I lower my head, ashamed, "Well I've introduced myself...and I don't have a clue about what we're supposed to talk about ..but I didn't want to leave you waiting and I..I'm sorry but all I have is the paperwork." She nods again.

"Well, I can work with that, based on my paperwork too. Hand it over." She sticks her free hoof out expectantly. I look to the folder and it doesn't seem to say I can't hand it over. I levitate the folder into her free hoof.

"I am really sorry Miss Copper."

"It's fine." She says as she takes the papers and begins to read through them. "Okay, yeah. It says here you're requesting enough common weaponry for your guard one and a half times over, with about twenty specific pieces thusly. Furthermore, you need strong metal bases for ponyquins for training equipment, about sixty or so of them, specific measurements here," She says, pointing to the paper and showing me. "And beyond even that, there are just a few bits of armor that needs to be specially crafted for specific ponies. WeIl, you'll have to have Major, ah… Flash Sentry, Major Sentry send those specific ponies in for measurements to be taken. You're budget for all this, to be finished by the end of next month, in two weeks' time, is a maximum of three thousand bits. Based on these measurements, excluding the specific ponies' armor, you're well within your budget with an approximate cost of twenty-one hundred bits. We appear to have the supplies for all this request, so we won't have to special order any extra material." She points to correlating graphs showing the numbers, budgetary, etcetera. "Oh, uh, can you remember all that? I can repeat that all if you need me to." She say with an apologetic smile.

I return a grateful smile,

"No , no. I understand, I have quite an ear and if I have the information I won't forget it."

"Well then, let me trade reports with you. Major Sentry should have a copy of your reports, as do we have one of ours. Even if you can't remember, which I now doubt, you'll be able to figure it out with a cross examination of these documents. Now, with our new smiths in town, the first shipment of these items will likely be within the week." She smiles as she hands over her documents but keeping ours.

I take them and return the smile,

"Thank you again and I'm very sorry for the trouble Miss Wind. I-" I'm interrupted as Major Flash Sentry arrives, breathing heavily,

"I'm here ..for...the meeting…" She turns to him, smiling, already holding the documents. He must not be as quick as I, if he left even a minute or two after I did and to be arriving here so late into the meeting.

"Sorry, we just finished, and I do believe Sergeant Echo has this under control. I understand everything too, and need to report this back to the masters of the forge." She turns to go, but stops. "Though I can't make absolute promises, work on your request will probably start tomorrow." And then she keeps going, trotting away. I hand over the documents to the Major. He looks over them, but tucks them away, and nods at me gratefully. We head inside the finished part of the barracks, what is essentially the locker room where all our supplies will be held, and I begin to take off my armor for the day when a group of officers approach me. They start asking me a flurry of questions, none of which I understand fully, but all of which I get are to poke fun at my behavior with Discord earlier. I can't seem to get a straight answer out at any of them before they're interrupting me with more humiliating questions or jokes. I start to get very angry, ready to throw some punches. Luckily for me, the Major ends up getting them to back off but from the look of his eyes I can tell he's more on their side than on mine. I ignore them all and take off my armor in the back of the room and put on my precious scarf. It's nearing sundown and I still don't have anywhere to go. I guess that means I'll have to face night in the open...alone ...in the dark. Cautiously, I keep going, essentially wandering the town. My nerves are running high when I walk by what seems to be a sweets shop, commenting,

"Sugar cube corner? Catchy." Before I know it, a pink pony suddenly stands before me,

"I KNOW RIGHT?" Oh gods! Who is this mare who came out of nowhere!? I stand, stiff with nerves. She just giggles and begins to talks so fast I can barely understand her.

"I was totally thinking it was catchy when I came here, it's all like ponies are the fun balls to play with and the shop is a big huge mit that catches all of them. I'm so glad you noticed it, but it's so weird ya know cause I overheard those stallions asking you mean questions and I was like that's no fun, I'll go make him feel better by taking him to Sugarcube Corner but then I followed you and you came here anyway!"

I try my best to respond to this _strange_ mare without being uncourteous,

"Yes, I suppose I_ am_ here, now if you excuse me I need to keep going so I can find a place to sleep tonight." I don't mean to be cross or rude, but the dark is fast approaching, and I really need a place to bunker down. The mare gets wide eyed at me, gasping loudly,

"You don't have a place to sleep? Oh _no_, why didn't you say so! There's an extra room upstairs, come on!" She trots inside the sweet shop. She looks back to make sure I'm following with an expectant smile. I grimace and pause.

Thinking about it, it probably isn't gentlestallionly to stay with a mare that you just met overnight but anything's better than outside, so I follow. Besides, we aren't doing anything and I will have a separate room. She shows me where it is, and I go up to the room and I'm out like a light after she leaves.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

I trot back to the forge, happy and excited to share how the first meeting went. Even as I walk away, though, I can hear stallions teasing him. It's not my place to jump in, but that kind of rudeness sets my blood to boil. But really, I don't know him, and it would probably be worse for me to interfere, considering they're guards and they work together. I try not to feel too bad about letting it go, so I continue on through Ponyville to my new home. I don't get very far, though, as I hear somepony call out my name. I turn, and smile.

"Copper!" A familiar mare gallops up and hugs me. I try to hug back, but I'm not a huggy mare. "We are all so sorry but our tickets got mixed or lost or something, I mean, we didn't mean to leave you, not _again._" she smiles, taking a breath. "How did the meeting go? Did Major Sentry finally meet with you?"

"Oh, that's the first thing you decide to ask me about? Not 'hey, how are you?'? 'How's it been?'" I tease her. "The meeting was fine, Pilot Light, but it wasn't until the end that Major Sentry even showed up." I pause. "How'd you know about the meeting, did Iron or Forgery tell you?"

"Oh, yeah, we were all wondering where _you_ were, and they said you were taking care of some 'official business', and of course I can't stand vaguities so I weaseled it out of Mrs. Iron. How'd you get on first name basis with these guys anyway? They asked us to use ye olde 'mrs.' and 'mr.'." She makes a half-grimace of a face, like she thinks the idea is both rude and silly.

"I showed up on time." I shrug. "I know it's not your fault, but it impressed them enough. And they're very nice."

"Ugh, what I wouldn't give to have that room in the house. So much less moving about." She shakes her head, pale blue mane going everywhere. Like me, she has some fairly curly hair, but she keeps it short and loose unless in the forge.

"Well, I'm probably not supposed to mention this, since there's no point now, but they said they were going to hold a contest of some sort to see who'd get it anyway, and that may well have been a disaster and a half. Besides, the additional housing that'll be built will have way more upgrades than the old house does now. So, in a way, you got a better deal, even if it means moving all your things twice." I try to talk it up so she doesn't feel so bad.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." She shrugs. "Are you heading back to the forge now? I think the boys are all there, getting shown around. I had some stuff I needed to get, so I buggered out of there quicker."

"Yeah, I am. I need to relay the contents of the meeting back to Forgery and Iron. And then, I guess, to you guys, too." I smile and stick my tongue out.

"Haha, you privileged jerk." She playfully pushes her shoulder into mine. "Come on." She starts trotting away, and I go with her.

Indeed, the stallions of the group are still going through the forge. They tend to geek out about these things, and not so much 'waste' time as just spend too much of their time on things. They always take longer, on any excursion. Normally Pilot is with them on that, but I wonder what was so important she get that she forgoed the extensive walkthrough. These four had gone to a finishing school together, whereas I went right into my apprenticeship. My parents couldn't afford a finishing school, and considering I _am damn good at this_, we knew there was no point in going to what is essentially a more complicated elementary school, full of technical things I'll never need to know. I spent about six years in my apprenticeship, where they joined me at my fourth year.

Point being, these four are all super tight friends, which explains their collective sort-of personality. Usually I can predict the whole group's goings-on by what one of them tells me or acts like. I find it funny, like a game, or a challenge. I watch the three stallions, Mercury, Hot Flash, and Stokes. Mercury is a dull gray earth pony with a dull orange mane, cutie mark of a melting pudge of metal, presumably iron. His eyes are a complementary sort of green, and he smiles like he's cheating at a card game. Hot Flash is an earth pony too, but he is the opposite of Mercury: a saturated but not overly bright blue, with a very short purple mane, tips dyed green. His eyes are a similar purple, and his cutie mark is not very obvious. Like me, his favorite task is heating and mixing metals, but his mark is a thermometer. He can manage the heat and tell it just by looking at it. I don't quite understand, but he's always accurate, and incredibly reliable. Stokes is a pegasus with great fanning wings that he uses to, well, stoke the fire. His wings are also incredibly dexterous, able balance or hold things. This comes in handy with delicate mark making, which he also happens to be very good at.

I look back at Pilot. She's a unicorn, but she's not very good with her magic. Her best spell is one that detects weakness in metals and gems. She uses a version of that spell to find metals when they're lost. Time and again a key has been found by her when we thought it was lost forever. One time we even tracked a single item across the entire city… obviously more familiar items are easier to track.

Of the new ponies here, there's only me left. Even though I know what I look like, I can't help but turn my head in self-inspection. I am a copper-brown kind of color. When I've freshly bathed and/or brushed, I am incredibly shiny. My hair is often described to me as silver, but it's really a flat gray. My eyes are similarly called bronze, but I would just call them brown. My cutie mark is a rapier, and it was the first thing I ever made. Not exactly the same, it was very messy compared to a proper sword, but I made it before I had any training. My mom and dad still have it, in a display box and everything. I think I was twelve when I made it. I shake my head. I had a point, thinking all this.

That point being that together, the five of us, we have the entire forge's duties covered in one way or another. I'm not sure how we'll fit into Forgery's and Iron's systems or talents, and vice versa. While by nature, we all tend to be fairly flexible about how things are done, there are some things that each of us have no bend to. Even me. And I'm quite willing to bet that our forgemasters do too. The problem will be finding their areas and figuring how to work around each other or with each other. This was their forge and home before it was ours, so they _should_ get the privilege of deciding how things are done, but when they're worked up, Mercury and Stokes being the worst about this, they can be incredibly stubborn and thick-headed. Pilot will very passionately defend herself and the others, to the point of yelling. More than once a fight has had to be broken up between her and somepony else. Our old forge masters were very skilled at getting each side to get over themselves and see their errors, but I hope we don't have to deal with stuff like that at all. I've never seen them fight amongst themselves, nor have they really had a bone to pick with me, so as long as they mesh well enough with our new bosses, all should be well.

Finally, Iron notices us standing by the door, although inside, and waves a hoof for us to come over. We do, and she greets us,

"Hello, dearies! How'd it go, Copper?"

"Well, I got their paperwork, here for you to review, but it went well, really. Major Sentry didn't show up until the end of the meeting. I, ah, got the paperwork from somepony lower down. A Sergeant Prestissimo Echo. I discussed things with him and gave him our copies. But they understand how things are going to go." I end with a nod and a small smile.

"Good, good. What's the deal, then?" Forgery asks, leaning over to see the packet that I'm holding.

"Well, their first order is fairly simple, as far as my experience tells me. Not too much for this first month. Most of it can be cast from reusable molds, the, ah, bases they're requesting. About fifty generic swords of various models, twenty special-design weapons we'll need to pay heavy attention to, and at some point we'll be measuring ponies for specific bits of armor, detailed in these papers." I say as I hand them over.

"Did you give them a due date for the first shipment?" Iron asks.

"I guestimated that with the simplicity of the majority of these requests, we'd get about a third of it within the week, but I only said we'd have _a_ shipment within the week. Was I wrong?"

"No, no. You're rather good at this, Copper." Iron says. I feel that if she were tall enough, she'd pat my head in reward. Her being too short to do so is fine by me.

"Thanks." I say, trying not to blush. I've never been good at compliments, at least on the receiving side.

"Do you want to go continue unpacking while we discuss the paperwork with these other four?" Iron asks, somewhat oblivious to the slight she's given to my colleagues.

"Sure. Are we starting work on this tomorrow?"

"We may start making the molds today, but I'll send somepony up to get you if we do." I nod at this and go upstairs, trying to ignore the teasing looks of my friends. Pilot, at least, thinks it's funny that I'm on their good side. The stallions seem to be jealous, but none of them mean any harm. My room is on the second floor, as is the master suite. The first floor of the house part is the kitchen and something of a living room. There's a room upstairs they're using as storage for personal items, and that's it. It's a tiny house attached to a large forge, really. It's been passed down through a familial reign of ownership, until the pony before Iron and Forgery came into ownership died of old age. Both of them had worked for him, and as he had no descendants who would take the place, he put them in his will as receivers of the house. That's why it's remained so small for so long; the family line was always small enough to live in a three bedroom house.

Now, though, they're going to have to make an expansion. It's cost ineffective to have ponies work at the forge and not live there, traveling from inside town to outside and back again every day. There will be either a whole new building plopped right beside this one or one of the walls is going to be torn down and the house be expanded from there. Forgery, being more in charge of the money management, is still trying to calculate how much each option would take from them, or rather, us and which is better.

I think about all this change as I unpack some of my personal stuff.

I don't have much with me. I don't like having a lot of physical objects. I have some clothes for when winter comes up, but beyond that there's not a lot. I have some cheap jewelry, necklaces and clip on earrings, some dangles for my hair when I feel dressy. I don't wear makeup… For reasons I'd like to not think about right now. Most of what I brought with me was the tools, raw materials, and similar. I do have some pictures of my mom and dad, and I put those frames on a shelf so I can see them. I remember how happy they were when I found a passion even though.. I'm different.

I shake my head. I don't want to think about that. My parents have _always_ supported me. I shouldn't be down in the dumps about things beyond my control when I've already made them proud. I'm doing fine. I really am.

After about a half hour, Stokes comes up to tell me we're going to jump right into the workload. I nod and follow him back downstairs.

We've still got most of the day ahead of us, so why not use it? We have to make molds for the ponyquin stands first, and if we have enough time left we may even get to cast some of them. At our last forge we used a super hard resin to make molds, via subtraction methods. The resin is hard to make and expensive to ship as it's very heavy, so it looks like we're using fire-hardened wood here. This is an older method, and a little less reusable, but we've plenty of material to make what's asked of us, and it's not all due until two weeks from now.

Part of me desperately hopes we get to start casting, because that means heating and mixing metals, and that means something special to me. My special jar of metal balls could use a new addition.

With a hopeful heart, I start carving into a huge chunk of wood.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

I wake up a little late and trot down the stairs to thank the kind pink mare for letting me stay but as soon as I come down I'm met with a cake pan to the face. I stumble back on impact, rear smacking the floor.

"Owwww.." I say, holding my hoof to my forehead.

"I swear on Celestia if you have done anything to our foals..!" I look up and see an orange stallion glaring at me.. His hat and apron kind of made it unintimidating though.

"What foals?" I snap. Then a turquoise mare with pink mane slams another cake pan into me again causing me to fall over and she gallops up the stairs. She comes back down with two small foals.

"Get out, intruder!" The orange one says standing over me.

"I was invited here!" I yell, thinking I had been tricked somehow.

"Invited by who?" says the mare, skeptically.

"Invited? Who's invited? Are we throwing a party!?" the pink mare comes hopping down the stairs.

"Pinkie, stay back! Hes an intruder!"

"Silly willy Mr. and Mrs. Cake! He isn't an intruder! He needed a place to sleep and rest so I thought 'gee what if I couldn't sleep because I didn't have a place to stay?'. If I couldn't sleep, I couldn't party and if I couldn't I couldn't party the town wouldn't be nearly as fun.. and if the town was boring my friends would be sad and then _I_ would be sad and really I'm not completely right when I'm sad. So I said 'Pinkie Diane Apple Pie you make sure this stallion sleeps so he can throw amazing parties!'! And it worked! We are going to a party, we are going to a party!" she started dancing around. I shake my head at the explanation and display, turning to the owners I've accidentally intruded upon.

"I'm terribly sorry... Mr. and Mrs.… Cake was it? I really was welcomed in by this mare, uh, Pinkie. I'm sorry to have scared you and intrude on your home like this. I was in a bad spot last night, and she really helped me out, but if I had known it wasn't quite in her position to offer, I'd not have taken advantage." I bow and wince at the pain. My head is screaming.

"Oh, I'm sorry dearie," Mrs. Cake says and sets her children down, then heads to the kitchen and comes back out with an ice pack for me.

"Welcome to Sugar Cube Corner. You must be one of those smiths or guards that came to move here," Mr. Cake said shaking my hoof with super pony speed, making my head spin.

"The second one." I force myself to focus and reply. They both stood there looking at me with smiles as if the past couple minutes never happened. These ponies are fruitcakes…no pun intended.

"Well thank you for your hospitality, but I must be going to work now," I say and half stagger out only to have the pink one follow me. She is nice enough as mares go but I don't understand a word she is saying. My head is pounding so badly I just can't focus on a single word, especially when her words are so close together I can't tell if she's breathing. Something about me going to a party and work and …chocolate rain? I start to fall over, my head is spinning so fast but my balance and focus are recovered when that Discord character splashes chocolate milk all over me. Pinkie Pie laughs. I blink a lot.

"I was just talking about your chocolate rain! What a coincidence!" she licks her face.

"Hah, I think I'm getting some of that pinkie-sense of yours, I just felt like a dash of chocolate milk could be used here, and of course I can't ignore an unstoppable need to throw chocolate milk, now can I?" He says, grinning madly the whole time. But he stops when he sees me, still as a tree on a windless day, blinking in a most confused manner. "Oh, it's _you_!" He shrieks, and immediately coils down, low to the ground like he's hiding from me. I quickly trade looks with all the ponies in the room, but they don't seem to understand either.

"I don't remember if I said it before, but I really am sorry for, well, scaring you like I did. I never in a million years meant to frighten or shock you, or what_ever_ I did!" He trembles as he apologizes.

_Oh great, I've made a monster goat dragon thing afraid of me. I should probably fix this. _I force a smile on my face, "Oh no no, it was completely on me. I am terribly sorry, I had just had a long day and I wasn't thinking straight."

"But my behavior…" He suddenly stands to nearly full height. "I really was acting inappropriately, considering the situation." He shudders. "I'm not used to having to respect boundaries, eh, rules, and all that." He says with a flourishing twirl of his wrist.

"Rules are there to keep everyone happy and secure. They need to be followed. If you're struggling I'd be more than happy to help," I say with more excitement than intended. He raises an eyebrow.

"Help? How does one help with following rules?" He looks at me, then exclaims, "Oh! My, I've left you all covered in chocolate milk. Where exactly have my manners gone to?" He snaps his fingers, and then all the drying stickiness disappears.

"Oh wow! Thanks!" I gasp. This was unbelievable, I mean, how did he do that?

"You're, eh, welcome." He nods like he accomplished something. "Anyway, you were saying about helping?"

"Well, rules are pretty simple to follow for me. I could help show you how to follow the rules or help you find the motivation to follow them." I explain and smile to him. He wasn't all that bad anyway, just … unruly. He looks down. I can't quite read the emotion he's displaying.

"I certainly have plenty of motivation." He scoffs and turns away. "I'll leave you be, after all, you're late for work." With a snap and a loud pop, he's away, to Celestia knows where. Panicking with realization, I gallop away and kick up dust when I come to a skidding stop at the site.

Everypony is already hard at work, putting finishing touches on the living quarters. That's really all that needs finished, too. The outside is done, training yard is complete with a large fence, the far side having the locker room where I've been keeping my personal items, and then this building, at the front of the yard and to it's left. Both are accessible from the street, and quite happily we are the only ones on this side of the street for at least a hundred yards left or right of us. Our living quarters building is two stories high, and about 6000 square feet of space. There's no living room, but there's something of a common space by the large kitchen. That takes up the whole first floor, and the second is all living space, that is, bedrooms. The kitchen will be partially stocked by several providing companies and the government each month, but it's expected that some of us go shopping. Just like it's expected, in an unwritten, unspoken way, that one day some of us will develop relationships and move out, or retire, or what have you. Not everypony will live here for the rest of their serve. I'll probably never leave. I am about to head inside when I hear Pinkie Pie calling after me. What's she doing here?

"Hey!" She shouts, prondling along, with something in her mouth. "You dropped your scarf-y thing!" She tries to stop, but skids a little too, although she appears completely not bothered by that, and bumps into me, chest to chest. "Here!" She holds it high in the air. I kind of freak, seeing it not on me. I always wear it off-duty, it.. it means so very much to me. Not quite on purpose, I snatch it, and wrap it safely around my neck. I sigh, grateful.

"Thanks, Pinkie." I say quietly. My questionable reactions are going to get rumors started about me, and I don't handle those.. well.

"Quite welcome!" She says, blinking her widening blue eyes. "Well, I'm going to go back to _my_ work so you can get back to yours. I guess this is goodbye for now, though, since you'll be here from now on."

"How'd you know?" She just sticks her tongue out at me.

"But I'm right, aren't I?"

"Yeah.."

"I'll just have to throw you a moving to Ponyville party!" With this declaration, I am about to tell her that's a silly idea when Flash shows up.

"A party? When, where?" He looks expectantly between us.

"No, sir, there's no-"

"I don't actually know yet, I haven't planned anything! I kind of just decided right this second!" Pinkie Pie exclaims loudly, cutting me off.

"Pinkie, I don't think that's a good idea actually." I say in the most polite manner I can manage.

"Sure it is!" Flash says. "We can't really have it today, and probably not tomorrow either, but after then! I mean, this is an accomplishment, and nopony in our group has really gotten to celebrate starting Ponyville's first guard. Oh, even better, in two weeks time we'll have both the rest of our members _and_ our first deal with the forge will be complete; what about then?" Pinkie gasps, jumping high into the air. I swear, the air around her turns a little pink as she does.

"Even better! Because I was going to throw them a party too, eventually, but now I can wrap it all up into a great big 'welcome to Ponyville and also congrats on working together on stuff' party!" She smiles gleefully.

"Um… uh I...ok." I say with a sigh. Who am I to ruin other ponies' fun?

"I'm glad you agree, but I don't know if you've got the proper spirit for such an event. Aren't you even a little excited?" Flash prods me with an elbow.

"Not really, I haven't been to a party in years, not really a fan." I say taking a step away. He's a good boss but my business is my business.

"I can't order you to be excited, but I can order you to go to that party, and that if you don't, you'll take the next week's cleaning duties." He leans in ominously, "All of them."

I snarl and march away. Not my best move in hindsight.

"Hey, wait! Why don't you like parties, Echo?" I turn to see Pinkie looking genuinely distraught. "Parties are where you have fun and talk or dance and drink punch and just relax but without the boredom part! Parties are for friends who are all happy about the same thing, and, and…" Her ears duck down. The image of her sorrow is enough that I feel that I must relent, or at least explain.

"I don't get along with other ponies, and parties usually run late. Danger tends to show up when it's late." I say a little defensively.

"I ain't neva' had a dangerous party, but if it'll soothe your mind, we can have it early in the afternoon, for lunch, and it'll end before it even gets dark!" Her eyes shoot wide open with hope, her smile wide to match.

"Still, I'm sure there's better things I could be doing…" At this, she drapes herself from my neck weighing me down. It also forces me to make eye contact with her as she pleads:

"Aw, come oooooooon." She really wants me to go to this. It seems to mean a lot to her..

"Well, will there be.. you know, music?" I look away.

"Well, of course! All kinds, too! I have a great deejay who knows how to keep the variety and everything!"

"Well… I'll attend, but I don't know for how long and I don't know _what_ I'll do, but I will attend." I try to make it sound like it's a great inconvenience for me to go, even though it isn't.

"Great!" She screeches joyfully, disconnecting from my neck. "I'll go start making the arrangements! Invitations, decorations, objects of amusement.." Her voice trails off as she prances away, merrily planning aloud to herself.

"Well, sorry I'm late sir," I say to the Major in half sincerity.

"It's fine. There's not much to do, well, for us to do. Even the painting's all done, it's just final little stuff. Turns out they got up extra early to get this done for us, they were so appreciative of our patience and contribution. You can go pick out a room, if you like. The ones all the way in the back upstairs are finished."

"Thank you," I take his advice and head inside. I end up picking a back room with a small window, easily coverable to keep the dark of night away. My small bag I take from the locker room and place it in the corner. I take a blanket out and start planning where I'll put the bed when _that_ gets here, using the blanket as a rough size estimate. It can't be too near the door, for obvious reasons, but I certainly don't want to sleep next to the window. I settle for the wall adjacent the door but farthest from the window, even though my head will be to the wall it's built in. I can see the whole room this way, and I'll be able to light it up, should I need to.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

As per my hope, we start casting today. The heating of metals is soon gotten to once the casts are carved. We ended up making six casts, each to be used ten times. We'll get the first batch of six done tonight, and they'll be set to cool all night. That said, the specific amount of metal required for this task is measured, and pulled from our stocks. These are supposed to be brass, so we're pulling copper and zinc. This excites me, deeply. As we place the respective amounts of each half of this equation, I can't help but stare eagerly. My unexplained gift comes from this, and this alone, and so I wait for this. The fire is lit, Stokes takes his place, his great wings prepared to kick up the mightiest of winds. Hot Flash is standing with me over the giant pot in which we'll mix our metal. Pilot is standing by for further instruction, and Forgery and Iron are by the casts. We'll need everypony's help when it comes time to fill the casts and seal them. Stokes starts with small flaps to excite the fire, to make it start to spread. I remember him explaining: _You have to start the fire strong before you get it hot. If you try to power a small and poorly taken flame to the heat you need it to be, you'll kill it. You have to make it catch._ Once the large spread of paper, leaves, sticks, planks, and etcetera, catches hold of the spreading fire, he starts pumping heavy, heaving brushes of his wings, and the heat roars. The higher melting point steel receives that roaring blaze and transfers it to the ingots of copper and zinc, and they begin to lose their shapes, slowly heating to the point of melting.

With my hoof, I knock a few over so that they touch the side or bottom, so they'll start to melt as well. Soon I'll take up a stirring stick and Flash and I will mix the two separate components to make something new. Flash calls for Stokes to make it hotter, and the sweltering heat raises in a wind that comforts me. My blood is singing for this, for my talent, for my passion and my love to be expressed. Flash throws me a stick, and I gleefully catch it, poking and prodding the metals together. Soon, they're pooling, hanging in the bottom of the bowl. I hang precariously over the edge, not touching it so as to keep myself from being burned. The pot isn't that large, only a pony's width, but it's also just as deep, and it's incredibly hot. I'm no good at the numbers, not with temperature, but I know it would hurt beyond measure. My life for my art, though. This is what my heart beats for, my greatest joy, my entire potential.

The metal is finally liquid, and Flash and I start to stir the heavy, molten metal into a more cohesive whole. Once there's no sign of this amalgamation having ever been two separate things, I signal Forgery and Iron to bring the molds over. They shove the large blocks over, and with a little help from the steadying force of Pilot's magic, we start to pour. The mass slides forward,slowly, like red and glowing water creeping forward in slow motion. Slowly, all six molds are filled, and to my great glee, there's some left. Most forgers would let it cool, harvest it, and recycle it, but this is one of those things I do that I will always do. My group stands back, and Pilot nudges Iron and Forgery, whispering quietly, "Watch.".

I slowly reach into the bottom of the bowl, where a small hoof-full of pooled and cooling metal is resting. I breathe out, and scoop the puddle into my hoof. Thanks to my… unique condition, I can do things like this, temporarily dispel heat from affecting my body. I hear gasps of delight and confusion both, but my mind is far from those who emit them. I am all about this moment, because of what's about to happen.

I shape the mass as it's cooling, quicker now, into a sphere, and hold it close. I close my eyes, and when I open them, I can see the snippets of things that will be:

_It's dark. I'm talking. A stallion? Familiarity. Comfort. Friends? Pulsing light, music. _

_Now it's bright. I'm outside. Something's missing. I need something. No more kindling? No more forging. Where can I-?_

_Now I'm somewhere else. An orange pony. Mare? We're making a bargain. I'm taking something with me when I go._

_And now I'm seeing another face. No. Two. SImilar, but not the same. Gray? Yellow? Red? Who? I don't, I can't place it, but I feel like I know them both. One smiles, one frowns, one is mad glee and the other is despair. _

_And now I'm flying. The world is perfect, because I am not denied the thing my magic calls for. I'm flying._

I open my eyes again, for real. I hold a fully stilled ball of brass, and the vision it granted me I can visit again. I turn around to Pilot's wide eyes and smile, Flash, Stokes, and Mercury grinning madly. Iron and Forgery are confused, they've never seen anything like this. It took a while to prove to my old forge masters that this was safe for me to do, and since then my colleagues expect it. They like when I show off, because I so often _don't_. I smile, and hold out the ball. To them, it's completely normal. They can't sense the magic in it that I can.

"H-how?" Iron says, shock and worry and some amount of disbelief cross her face.

"It's a smaller part of my talent, and, ah, it's just a little tradition I've developed." I say, shrinking a little. Nopony knows why I started this, other than I just can, and that I always have.

"Well, we won't 'ave to clean the pot." Forgery says, looking over to the pristine bowl. I nod a tiny nod. "Tha's pretty amazin'. How _do_ you do that?" I shrink a little more. His curious, skeptical face frightens me, because-

"She can't explain it, sir, but she does it really well! She's got a jar full of some of them, her favorite projects' only remains. It's so cool!" Pilot says, before I can sputter an explanation. She's right, though, I can't explain it without also revealing some other things. Things I hate to talk about. Hate to think about.

"Well, as long as you don't hurt yourself, others, or the equipment, I think you can keep your little ritual." Iron says, incredulous.

"Th-thanks. It means more than it looks like it does.." I blush, not enjoying the spotlight.

"Well, I 'ave nothing against it. But the sun is settin' and I'm sure everypony wants to sleep, after that hard work. Carvin' and meltin' and the like is rather tiring." Forgery states, not really paying attention anymore. "An' we aren't making dinner for you, but you are welcome to the supplies, long as you replace them." Everypony nods and heads in. I shoot right up to my room, excited to put this new ball with the others. I'm not even hungry. So I dive to the floor, pulling the large, two hoof-wide jar out from under the single bed, and gently pull the top off. It comes off with a satisfying pop, and with a small 'clink' the brass ball joins its siblings. I tap the top back on, and hold it close. Later I'll revisit the vision it carries, but for now I want to see if I can channel just one from all of them. The one that always comes at the end, where I get to fly. After going through all of them, I took only the ones with the strongest memories or visions to come with me, because together they make a stronger end product that I'm looking for. The ability to live, if only in a dreaming state, as my pegasi ancestors did and do. The more I have, the stronger the dream will be.

I lie down, clutching my magic little jar. I'm wingless one moment, and the next, I'm not.

_The wind is tearing through the sky, trying to tear through me, but my wings can catch everything it throws, and send me sailing. I can punch through clouds, I can skim the land, I can fly to the moon, all on my own power. And in the moonlight, I sparkle. I look every inch of my namesake. I am copper that rides the wind, that summons it! I am so much more than I am. _

_I am not a disappointment. I am not the only sign of a break in regal bloodline. I am not a crippled pegasus who was never born with wings. I am not the greatest shame of my family. I am not a freak. I am everything I was expected to be and am not. But now I am. _

_I reach the top of the sky and pause._

_And then I fall._

Like the end of a bad dream, I fall back into reality, breathing hard. It's never long enough, it seems, to really forget that I can't ever be what I want to be. That life on the ground is the only life I'll ever know. And that I'm….

No. I don't want to think about it. Any of it. It'll be a while til I can summon the dream again, but I have that. I have a new life in Ponyville. A lot of work to do, a lot of ponies to meet, and so much to distract me from my past. I can forget it all, just for a while. Until I'm reminded again, that is. I check the time. It's only nine. It's dark now, and while my four friends have left already, I'm sure that Forgery is still up, crunching numbers over and over. Math isn't his talent, but he enjoys it, and it keeps them on a solid budget. They've quite a bit of extra saved, I'm told, hiding away in a bank collecting interest..

I look at my jar of wonders. I kind of want to go to sleep, but I kind of want to decode the three different visions my latest edition brought me. But the crash of waking from my respite is a bit much, this time. I decide I'm too tired to watch them again, and I put the jar underneath my bed. I roll over, take my sleep aid, and push my face into the pillow. Goodnight, world. See you tomorrow.

I wake up the next day, refreshed bodily but still exhausted mentally. It's also pretty early. I get up and stretch a little, and head downstairs, after brushing out my floofy mane, for some coffee or tea. Coffee will give me a noticeable edge, but it'll also make me crash. When I crash I get a little cranky, or, rather, I get antisocial. Tea will keep me calm, but I'll feel just as tired. Or maybe I won't. Come to think of it, I don't know what kind of tea Pilot got. Maybe it'll help me wake up.

I don't get a chance to find out, though, because as soon as I reach the kitchen there is a soft, but eager rapping at the door. I sigh a tiny sigh and go to answer it. The only way into the house is through the forge, where the 'front door' is. I trot through and open the heavy door.

"Hell-"

"Hiya! Sorry to be bothering you so early, but I got the feeling somepony was awake, so I came over to tell you the good, good news!" Her pink face is consuming my entire range of vision, her pink eyes far too close to mine for such a time in the morning where my thoughts are still a little dazed.

"Pinkie?" I blink, trying to gather myself.

"Yupperoo." She smiles.

"Hey." I rub my face quickly, then respond, "What news?"

"Well, I told you yester-yesterday, I think, that I was going to sometime soon throw a real welcoming party for your guys' arrival! Well, plans have changed, but in a good way, see, because I was talking with your partners in trade, the new town guard, and I realized I needed to throw them a party too! Well, first it was only one pony, but then I realized he didn't come here alone, so I should throw alllll the new ponies a party, then one of them suggested we invite you guys' to the party too, since you're all new too, _and_ you're partners and stuff! So, we're having a welcome to ponyville and congrats on doing business party next next week, and the whooooooole forge group is invited, not just the new ponies. How does that sound?" I can hardly believe she's still alive, because she doesn't seem to breathe when she talks, only exhales in communicative sound. But I nod.

"Well, we have a lot of work to do, and not a lot of time to do it. We may be all tuckered out by the time the party comes around." I say in complete honesty. We've tried this before, celebrating right after a big project. Did not work out.

"I understand. That's why I'm here, to find out this super-duper important stuff! Like, one stallion wouldn't show up unless it was in the day, so I said that was totally a thing we can do. If you guys need a break, like, a couple of days, beforehand, that's totally okay! I'm the manager of this party, you know, so I can make big changes like these." She smiles and nods like it's a big deal. I can tell this is her passion.

"Well, I can't speak for everypony. You'll have to wait and see what the rest of the crew thinks, including the forge masters. They may not like their workers goofing off for a whole afternoon when we could be attending to more important matters. But like I said, I really can't speak for them." I think. "Have you had breakfast?"

"Nope! I was too excited this morning to even wake up properly! I just shot out of bed and came over here, because my Pinkie Sense told me that there was an important thing I could take care of." She smiles.

"I thought so. Well, I haven't eaten either. I can make us some oatmeal? I don't eat a lot in the morning, so we could share a single serving." She doesn't say anything, just nods rapidly, causing her springy hair to fly everywhere. "Okay, come inside. Sorry the kitchen is cramped, there's never been more than four ponies in here at once."

"I work at a bakery, I know what it's like to have too many cooks in the kitchen, ha. Not that there's a number that makes it too many cooks in a kitchen, that'd be silly and too ruley." She says as she sits down. "Oh! Want me to help?"

"Nah, you don't know your way around this kitchen, and I offered. At this point, you're more a guest than I am." I start pulling out ingredients, and place a small pot on the small stove. It's not electric, so we're still going off wood burning stoves here, but that should be upgraded with the rest.

"What do you mean?" She asks, head on the table.

"I'm new, but I live here. So even though I'm still new, I sort of have less of a guest label than you do." I bite my lip. "If that makes sense."

"Sure!" I smile at her simple reply to my vague and rather abstract idea. As the water begins to boil, there's another knock at the door.

"Pinkie, can you watch this, I've got to get that." She nods and trots over. I walk to the door, again, though I feel better about it than I did the first time. I open the door and resist every neuron screaming at me to shut the door. "Pr-princess Twilight!" I nearly scream. My gods, I've got my hair down, I must look like a poofy wreck!

"Hi there. I heard Pinkie Pie was here on business, and I thought I'd join her." She may not be wearing her crown, but damn does she look regal.

"Hello, your highness." I bow down, my hair going everywhere. I must be blushing so badly! "Pinkie is here, we're, ah, making… breakfast.." I mumble.

"Oh, wow, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt." She looks genuinely upset, like our breakfast is the most sacred of rights.

"No, no, come on in. It's still on the stove, nothing's started. And we're just waiting for the rest of my crew, anyway."

"Are you sure? I don't mean to intrude, I just, well, I thought I'd greet some of my new ponies." Ears back, she apologizes.

"Quite, come on." I usher her in, and as she sweeps in, I notice for the first time the baby dragon with her. The famous Spike. I motion around the forge. "This is the forge room, largest part of the house, currently, and where we do all our work, well, most of it. Uh, kitchen's this way." I lead them in, and Pinkie waves ecstatically at Twilight.

"Oatmeal is done!" She exclaims, somehow quietly slamming the pot onto the table. Observing, there seems to be much more in there than I put in, and much more than just the plain oats. I look at her questioningly. "I only put in flavor stuffs, no more oats, I promise." I shrug. I don't want to question how she can just read minds.

And this is how my day starts. Reality warping Element of Harmony Pinkie Pie, and Princess of Magic Twilight Sparkle, her baby dragon and awarded hero Spike, and crazy oatmeal.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

My first night in my room went pretty quietly. I haven't felt this rested in months. I get up gleefully and toss my scarf around my neck, grab my wallet and trot outside. My enjoyment is quickly disrupted by nagging peers about my habits at night. Gods it's just a quirk and none of their business.

"Hey, any Timberwolves visit last night, Mr. Nighttime Isn't Safe?" one of them comments.

"None that I'm aware," I say, biting my tongue and trying to walk past but another one blocks me,

"Oh but what about Princess Twilight's terrifying dragon, surely he needed defending against?"

"Very funny, _horse face_." I say, facing turning down into a scowl.

"What did you call me?!"

"Hard of hearing?" I say, staring him down, "Then I will speak slower: Get. Out. Of. My. Face. Horse. Face," I throw a fake smile in to top it off. I really should control my anger. I hope the Gods forgive me later.

"We'll pummel you, you little upclass priss! Maybe Canterlot raises wimps that can't back up their words but Manehattan raises fighters!" He picks me up by the throat and then Major Flash Sentry comes out of his room, probably having heard the commotion.

"Something wrong, gentlestallions?" He asked sternly. It's times like these that I'm reminded of how strong a major he really is, the way he carries himself is incredible. Such confidence, so sturdy and resolute that nopony dares cross him.

"No sir!" The large one drops me and they both stand at attention. I send a scowl their way and salute, too.

"Then don't block the halls and go to the cafeteria," He orders. They nod and leave, glaring at me and murmuring until out of earshot. I dust myself off to avoid eye contact.

"Thank you sir but I had this under control." I say as respectfully as I can manage.

"Are you going to start a fight every time your co-workers tease you? I know they're being childish, but you can't take all of them. And I know you're the victim here, but you're not exactly explaining anything to anypony. If they don't understand they're going to poke at you." He rolls his eyes.

"Tell me sir, do you have access to your soldiers records?" I ask, biting my tongue again. It's so hard but the Major means well.

"No more than what's public anyway. Medical history and personal information is beyond me. Why do you ask, Echo?" He raises an eyebrow.

"If you were to have access, you might find that I was recommended to various therapists for being exposed to murder first hoof at a young age. I have no tolerance for violence, save for what's needed to end it. There are rules that we follow to save lives. If they are going to be foalish I _will_ put them in their place. The guard doesn't- shouldn't- have time for lowlife bullies," I say. He sighs.

"Look. I understand what you've gone through. Not from first-hoof experience, but just from sympathy. I can't imagine.. well, I can. But I can't imagine dealing with it. I won't explain this to them, that's your job, but I will understand if some of your coping methods are what make you act certain ways. Unless ponies are hurt, do whatever makes you feel better. I do, however, expect you to try to explain this to them, like you did me. If you have to take it to them one at a time, fine. Just try. And if after that, they still pull this bull-crap act, I'll reprimand them." He puts a hoof on my shoulder as he talks. "Sound fair?"

"I don't need help and I shouldn't have to explain myself to them, they should take their jobs seriously the first time," I say, eyes downcast. I shrug off his hoof, like a huffy teenager. I'm the one acting foalish now and I'm pretty sure it's not convincing him either.

"Fine." Is all he says. He closes his eyes as he turns to walk away. "If things get too bad for you, and they will, I'll still be here." And then he's gone.

"Thank you sir, it means a lot," I say, knowing he can't hear but I feel the need to say it. The Major is just like an older brother. I just hope I don't wreck his reputation too. I make my way down the stairs and head out to town, looking for a place to eat. Ponies can call me strange and stubborn but I'm not going to go to a cafeteria full of overgrown foals. I make my way past Sugarcube Corner. It smells delicious but I decide against eating sweets this early and I move on to find a simple breakfast shop. I smell fresh unseasoned bread and roasted hay, and my mouth actually drools a little. I wipe it clean and read the sign, "Tasty Toasties". I go inside and a little bell rings, how quaint.

"How can I help you this fine morning?" A stallion asks. His build is intimidating unlike the one from Sugarcube Corner, this one clearly makes, kneads and carries all the bread himself, probably hundreds of loaves a day to keep everything fresh. He could pass for a bodyguard or a bouncer at a high end Canterlot club.

"Do you serve roasted oats this early? Oh, and with some honey glazed over?" I ask.

He nods and smiles, "I will be right back. Please, make yourself comfortable," he says, disappearing behind the curtain. He comes back a moment later with a piping hot plate and hands it to me. I give him his bits and go outside, taking a seat. The plate smells so good I almost forget about my asinine co-workers' actions this morning. Instead the oats make me think of my mother and her dishes. A thought no less depressing. The joy gone again, I start eating when out of no where a grey pegasus mare places a purple tulip on my table and flies away. Shocked, I sit here for a moment, staring at it.

The gesture was kind enough but I find no use in smiling about it because her admiration or kindness will be short lived. Just like everypony else that discovers my quirks. It is a nice tulip though. I take it out of courtesy but hide it in my scarf so no pony will see me carrying or wearing it. The Gods know that would just make more trouble for me. I don't understand it. It's not like I've done them wrong, it's mindless muscle ponies like that that made me take up this job in the first place. _ Dominance_, the only possible motivation to be the way they are. A sick desire to put yourself over others. If you don't like the rules, be in a place where you can change or break them with little to no consequence. I suppose that's their logic or maybe they're just stupid.

I wander around Ponyville for a while. Today is my off day anyway. Nothing left to do _but_ wander around and get a feel for the land.

What were they even thinking making a place so close to the Everfree Forest with no organized form of protection? I understand the capability of the Elements of Harmony but what about before then? I can't even stand the thought of the way they might have handled themselves. Maybe, maybe there is a spell in the air making everyone peaceful and preventing dangers from doing any permanent damage. I wouldn't be surprised considering what kind of wacky magic has already been dug up by the Princesses and Elements of Harmony. Ponyville is actually a nice place when you slow down, which I haven't done until now. Trotting, I can smell a variety of flowers from the gardens. Everypony seems occupied or busy. Without really being being so.

There's a school yard where foals play and suddenly there's a yell and a magenta mare steps out to call them in. She carries herself kind of like the major, demanding respect, only softer.

Walking on I find a white wooden gazebo. It seems old but has been well maintained. Before long I've covered the town and its outskirts so I head back when I remember the party Pinkie Pie has planned. I can't remember if she told me the attire or not. Which considering my memory when it comes to listening it probably means she didn't. I go to Sugarcube Corner to find her. When I walk through the door I'm assaulted with a flour bag and hear giggling.

"Oh hi! Welcome to Sugarcube Corner! Just a minute! Pumpkin Cake put that flour-" she's interrupted as she herself is pelted with a bag with a loud thud. She then pauses to process the event and then let out what I could only describe as chuckle and cackle mix. The foals sit down, finally, and let her deal with her customer.

"Hi Pinkie," It's the only proper response I can think of and I was going to say it anyway.

"Oh hiiii Echo! Jee what brings you here! Oh do you want sweets?! But wait a minute here, you said you were a no-cake mister. What's a no-cake guy doing in a cake shop? Really awkkkwarrrd!"

"Well actually I wanted talk to you about the party. What kind of attire is it?" I ask trying to pretend I'm not covered in flour.

"Ooooohhhhh I've heard Rarity use that word it means clothes right fancy not fancy or no clothes at all? Well I don't really care I was thinking ponies just come in what they want. I mean why make everyone wear the same stuff. Unless," She gasps, "We have our own Grand Galloping Gala! Brilliant !" She squees and I stand there in silence. I can't believe this pony is going to just _let_ things happen! At least I know now it will be semi-formal to formal depending on individual tastes now. However, I am unfamiliar with the town still, and I don't recall seeing a boutique or similar store on my exploration of the town.

"Pinkie, do you know where I can get a suit tailored?"

"Tailored?" She cocks her head to the side for a moment. "Oh, yeah! My friend Rarity owns a boutique on the east side of town, she makes dress and suits and hats and boots and all sorts of things, and if you ever break something, she can almost definitely fix it. She's very, very good at what she does! It's called 'Carousel Boutique' and it looks like a giant house of a gazebo, and it's very pretty. You can set up an appointment there, and she'll get you set riiiiiight up!" Despite her joyous tone, her description of the place almost brings to mind imagery, and for a moment I want to commend her verbality. "Tell her I sent you, and she'll be extra super friendly. Which is a hard thing to do, because she's _already_ super friendly!"

"Thank you." I say simply. I start to leave, but the cloud of white reminds me that I am still covered in flour. "Uh, is there a bathroom where I can wash this off?"

"Yeah, to the right of the staircase. Lights might take a minute to come on, the bulb socket in there is a liiiiittle iffy." She says as she turns back to the foals. "Come on, let's go clean up too." She picks them up and takes them back behind the counter space, presumably to a sink and a wash. I go to the bathroom and she is right the bulb there is indeed 'iffy' but the light isnt what I needed and the sink works just fine. I wash myself clean but unfortunately my scarf gets soaked in the process, and my tulip falls limp to the weight of the water. I put them back on and hope staying outside a bit will help them both. It really was a nice tulip. I'd hate for it to become completely ruined in just a few hours. I thank Pinkie again and leave. I trot along until I find the building matching Pinkie Pie's description and walk in and another little bell rings.

"Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where everything is chic and magnific." A white mare with a dark purple mane yells from the back corner where she's working with a few ponyquins .

"Thank you, are you Miss Rarity?" I ask, wiping my hooves on a welcome mat.

"Why, yes I am, darling. Welcome to my little slice of beauty, how can I help you?" She says with a smile, genuine smile and several bats of her eyelashes.

"Oh , well if it's not too much trouble I need a suit tailored. Your friend Pinkie Pie said I could make an appointment." I say with a half smile trying my best not to offend her by being my usual grumpy self.

"A suit? Of what variety?" She levitates a pen and pad over, looking at me studiously.

"Oh, anywhere from a business casual to a party formal is fine Pinkie Pie didn't really have plans for everypony. She just said in that range of attire." I say a little embarrassed. No pony has looked at me this long since my last concert and even then It was a small crowd not one pony.

"Well, if it's Pinkie who said this, she didn't just say it, did she? She sort of rambled excitedly and you got a general idea?" She smiles, again. "Yes, well. I've got an open day in about two days, give or take depending on work schedule. You can come in on Thursday, anytime after eleven, and if I'm busy then, come back Friday. I'll come up with a few sketches and material choices for you in between then and now. Sound good? Oh, and mightn't I take a few measurements before you go? If that's well with you."

" Oh, um yes guess it would be pointless if it didn't fit. Oh if it's not too much trouble could work in my scarf in your designs?" I ask, then take off the scarf and set it and the tulip down gently.

"Hmm." She studies my scarf where it sits for a moment, then picks it up in her magical grasp and further inspects it. I nearly panic, but hold most of my composure. "Yes, I do believe I can."

"Thank you very much Miss Rarity," I say gratefully.

"Please, darling, it's nothing. Now, since Pinkie so graciously recommended me, I'll give you a discount. Twenty percent off the final price sound good?"

" You don't have to do that, really your prices from your chart behind you are already really gracious especially for the craftsmanship you clearly put into your work."

"Oh, but darling, ten of it is for your service. Didn't you see the sign? Besides, I do this at least once for everypony who comes through here. It's what I do, as much as dressmaking is." She puffs out her chest a little. It's obvious she takes pride in this kindness, this generosity.

"Well if you have your heart set. Is there anything I can help you with during your work schedule this week? I'm really not comfortable just having a personal discount. I could water plants or get groceries or something. Really, I have the early morning patrol shift so I'm free most of the day now that construction is done. And I have Tuesdays off if there's something you need in the future." I suggest as politely as I can.

"Well.. I have a little sister, and she spends nights with me sometimes. It just so happens that Thursday is the next time she's over. She's quite enamored with the guard, as we've never had one, and I'm quite certain you being there would entertain her and keep her out of, eh, things. So even if I don't have time to work with you then, do you suppose you could spend the afternoon with her?" She gives a wider, less affectionate smile and does the thing with her eyes. I can't help but lean back a little.

"Um, sure. I'm sure I can entertain your little sister for one afternoon. I have an older brother myself. I loved to bother him when I was younger so I understand her curiosity." I say and get a sinking feeling when Rarity's eyes light up even more.

"Oh, thank you ever so much, darling! I'm sure you'll do juuuuust fiiiiiine!" She says with enthusiasm. "Now, I'll take those measurements, and I'll send you on your way. A busy stallion like you _must_ have elsewhere to be, and other things to do." She says a little too happily as she whips out a measuring tape and holds it up to me at varying places.

"Oh yes of course," I say nervously. She soon finishes and I leave back to the barracks to see if the Major needs anything.

This town is _weird._


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

There's no chance of awkward silence, because Twilight is very talkative, and seems to enjoy asking questions. I answer all of them to the best of my ability, and to my surprise, most of them are about me, and not my work. And for the majority of the time, I don't feel like I'm in the presence of a princess, but just somepony I met off the streets. She so very friendly. Spike asks lots of questions too, but from the look of things most of his questions are also the ones Twilight asks. Goodness, I'm not even referring to her as a princess!

"How are you liking Ponyville?" Pinkie asks, talking for the first time, surprisingly, the whole conversation.

"It's only, uh, my third day here? Yeah. Yesterday I worked, and the day before I spent moving in. I'll be working again today.." I chuckle. "I haven't really seen a lot of Ponyville."

"That's a shame, but one that will be remedied in time. A night out on the town with friends, or a shopping trip, or anything. Ponyville's not that big." Twilight says, nodding.

"Well, probably won't be a night on the town. Not to dis my crew, but they're really tight, and I'm kind of an outsider, and really, I act more like a boss sometimes. And since I'm so new I don't have any relations here in Ponyville.." I sigh, dropping my spoon down into my oatmeal.

"Ah, whaaat? How can you not have friends, like, immediately after getting here? You're so cool!" Pinkie exclaims. She seems to do that a lot.

"Well, it takes longer than just 'hello!' to be friends. I mean, that's how it starts normally, but that's not all. And some ponies don't get along at all, ever. I… I'm also not much of a social butterfly. I'm like a social ant, just a cog in the machine most days."

"No, that can't be true!" Spike says, slamming his, what are they? Hands? Yeah, hands. He says, slamming his hands on the table.

"I'm a very slow mover when it comes to pony interaction.." I tip my head to the side, embarrassed.

"But this whole time you've been so talkative. I don't believe you have all that much difficulty." Twilight says, with Pinkie nodding fiercely.

"You guys didn't give me much of a choice, one of you is a princess, the other is the most social pony I've ever seen, and the other one is such a curious youngster I can't help but talk to you!" I say, giggling.

"Fair enough." Pinkie says. Suddenly, I hear hoofsteps coming down the stairs. Iron and Forgery are awake.

"Copper, who's here so early in the-" Iron says as she comes down, stopping when she sees Twilight. She gives a shreiking little gasp and tumbles back up the stairs. Forgery walks down without her, and then nods in recognition when he sees who's here.

"S-sorry, sir. Pinkie came over, and Princess Twilight followed her, and I couldn't just deny the princess entry.."

"I understand. Iron never thought she'd meet a princess for breakfast lookin' an'thin' other than perfect. Seein' her at the breakfast table, in our house, set her off a little." He scoots past us, to get to the brewing coffee. "She'll be fine."

"Sorry to intrude, sir, I've never been here, and I figured I should come visit, considering your boom in population." Twilight says.

"'S fair enough. A little warning next time'd be nice." He winks.

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind." She laughs. Pinkie joins in, and soon, even I give a little laugh.

"The only problem now is that we're to be gettin' to work soon, and I'm afraid our policy is strictly no vis'tors durin' work hours."

"We understand." Twilight nods. I cough, interrupting.

"I'm going to go get ready for the day. I shouldn't take too long, but if you leave before I'm done, I just wanted to say 'bye'." I wave and head toward the stairs. There's a chorus of goodbyes and waves, and I feel pretty great to see them all smiling at me. Like damn, am I important to them, already? Is this just common courtesy to them?

I feel bad lying, though. I do have to get ready, but there's more I want to do than that. Last night I forgoed visiting the visions of the brass ball to sleep, but now I feel like I need to, or I'll miss an opportunity. So I quickly, skillfully braid up all my mass of hair, and pull the ball out. I know which one it is, despite it matching some others. The magic captured in it is different, distinct. I hold it in the hollow of my hoof, and think about it, calling it out. I want the second one, I think.

Slowly, it comes back, in more detail.

_I'm outside. I haven't gone far. Where? Oh, the forge! Behind it, where all the kindling is. Something's off. I need something. But what? Something is missing, and it's important? Oh!_

_The kindling pile is low. It feels close, this moment. To now. I think. It feels like this is a problem. Bigger than it seems. Is there no renewal to the supply? Like a click, I somehow know this is the problem. This is a problem. No kindling, no melting of metal, no metal working, and subsequently, no new visions. _

_What comes next? What's the solution? Just like last time, everything changes around me. I'm talking to someone. I'm going to get something from them. Her. A mare. The orange one. I'm getting something from her. I didn't know it before, but this isn't a separate vision. This is a continuation. This is directly related. Am I getting wood from her? We.. appear to be in an orchard. This makes sense…_

And then I'm back. I blink my eyes clear of residual color, and head back downstairs. Twilight or Pinkie might know who the orange mare..

To my luck, they're still here, chatting up a storm with Iron Casting and Forgery. Everypony looks up when I cross through the door.

"Oh good, you're back." Iron says.

"Good? Did you miss me?" I raise an eyebrow.

"Princess Twilight is talking about how we have such a good pony working with us, she seems very impressed." Both the princess and I blush.

"Aha, that's… Thanks. I actually had a question."

"Oh?" Iron says.

"Is there an orange mare in town? I think I saw one yesterday, eh, drop something, while I was out. I wanted to ask her, to be sure, but I lost her in a crowd."

"That's A.J.!" Pinkie says.

"A.J.?"

"Applejack. She's one of our friends. She runs Sweet Apple Acres, on the east side of town. To my knowledge, she's the only orange mare in town. What did she drop?" Twilight says with concern.

"I don't know, I didn't see what. I just wanted to tell her she might have. Not catching up to her.. I feel bad." I hope I'm convincing..

"Yeah, yeah. I get it. We'll take you over now, if you want." Pinkie says.

"May I?" I ask Forgery and Iron. They nod.

"Nopony's here yet, no work can get done. Well, we can probabl' pop the bases out, but we can't do an'thin' more until your crew gets here." Forgery shrugs. "Go on ahead."

"Thank you."

"And thank you for letting me stay and talk." Twilight says.

"And thank you for letting me eat Copper's food!" Pinkie says. And then we shuffle out the door, the four of us. And just like that I'm trotting along with a princess, a dragon, and a sugar addict. It's pretty great.

We don't talk much, which is surprising considering the company, but every now and then Pinkie or Spike will point out a place and give a bit of description. There are bakeries and work shops and odds and ends places everywhere. Pinkie points out her work place, a sweets shop by name of Sugar Cube Corner. Spike points out a comic book store, smiling with wonder. Ah, the joys of youth, the mysticism everything seems to hold. The town is so bright and happy, and I can't seem to feel otherwise. Until, that is, all three of my present company grind to a stop.

"W-what's wrong?" I ask.

"Tirek didn't destroy a whole lot, he never got that far, but.. the one thing he did ruin was my old home. My library treehouse. This.." Twilight can't seem to finish, only point with a tired, sweeping hoof. I look ahead to the right. It's scorched to hell and back, only the base still remaining. It's been cleaned up, I'm sure, there's no debris anywhere, but the look of it here is heart wrenching.

"Oh, I'm.. I'm so sorry.." My ears fall back against my head. I can.. I can almost see it burning, and the idea is horrid.

"It wasn't you who did this. And the one who is, well, he's where he belongs." Twilight says, a little darkly. Spike pulls at her wing, saying,

"Come on, let's just go. We'll waste the day, standing here.."

"That reminds me, after we're done at Applejack's, I gotta go back to foal sit for the Cakes. They've business to attend to!" Pinkie starts as she pushes us away.

"Alright, then." I mumble.

The rest of the walk is in total silence. I can tell Twilight and Spike are still in mourning for their previous household, or at least still hurt by it's current state. Pinkie humms to herself, but it feels off. The events of Tirek's dash for power must still weigh on them. Not all the events are common knowledge, as each of the eight involved most denied giving a statement, and refuse still to hold interviews. Most of them come from Ponyville, and so I can understand them wanting privacy where they've always had it. It's been several weeks, though, since his defeat and Twilight earning her title, and the seven of them discovering the Rainbow. They'll need to talk about it sometime. Holding in pain will only cause it to fester..

"H-hey!" I say, not thinking. I suddenly have everypony's attention, and I don't know what to do with it. "Uh, let's, um, let's play a game!"

"A game? Like what?!" Pinkie bounces into my very personal space.

"Tag, but, it's, uh, also a race! You can only run towards Sweet Apple Acres, but tag rules still apply! Uh, sound fun?"

"Boy howdy, it does!" Pinkie exclaims.

"I'm not very fast on my own.." Spike says, twiddling his fingers.

"Then, you, ah, can ride with me! I'm really bad at games, so you can advise me, we'll be a team!" I say with a raised leg, suddenly excited.

"Sounds fair." Twilight nods. "I'll be it first. And… you get.. thirty seconds head start." With that, she starts counting, and Spike hops onto my back and we're off! The next twenty minutes are spent dashing around town, Twilight swooping in on us when she's it, Pinkie popping out of nowhere when it's her turn, and me and Spike struggling, but working well, when it's ours. By the time we get to the farm, we're all tuckered out. It was fun, and exciting, but we lie panting in the grass just outside the gate for several minutes.

"That.. ha! That was a great idea, Copper!" Twilight says. I figure she gets that it was a distraction from their grief, but it did it's job.

"Now, what're ya'll doin on my grass at this time a' day?" A new voice comes out of nowhere, playfully.

"Oh, Applejack! Meet our new friend, Copper! We just had a game of tag-race!" Pinkie jumps to her hooves, completely recovered. Upside down, I see the orange mare, Applejack, leaning over her fence, looking at us with a satisfied smile on her face. I roll over, getting to my hooves.

"Ah, hello!" I brush grass from my mane and legs, and offer a hoof to shake.

"Howdy!" She takes my hoof from over the fence, gripping just as willfully as Forgery did the day I met him. "Nice ta meet ya. What brings ya here?"

"Ah, well, yesterday I was out on the town, and I thought I saw you, and more specifically, I thought I saw you drop something. Twilight and Pinkie told me it was probably you I saw, and I wanted to warn you, in case you did lose something and it was important." I lie through my teeth to this mare, and feel awful. Minutes into conversation, and I'm lying! Gods, I'm awful. She looks at me, and though I know I'm, somehow, skilled at lying, I feel like she knows.

"Well, I don't seem to have lost nothin' but I'll go through what I had and what I have and see if I did lose somethin'. Thank ye' kindly." She smiles and nods.

"That's all we came here for, really." Twilight says, shrugging. "Although, of course, it's always nice to see you." She elbows Applejack. As they chat, I look about for a sign, a starter that'll get me what I came here for. As I look over her lands, I realize she must have dozens of acres of it, all filled with enormous, fruit-bearing trees.

"S-say, Applejack?"

"Yes, sugarcube?"

"You've got an awful lot of trees here, don't you?"

"An awful lot? That ain't near enough description for how much I _really_ got. Here, there's twenty-four acres of just apple trees, discounting the land we got for other products, and on each acre there's got to be 'bout two hundred or so trees. Some ain't as big as others, but one day, they will be. Still, in all, we got four hundred plus trees." She closes her eyes and lifts her head proudly.

"You forgot a zero." Twilight says, hushedly. Applejack ponders for a moment.

"Whoops, that'd be four thousand plus trees. Math never was my favorite."

"Wow. What.. how do you manage it all?"

"Hard work and perserverance. And, sometimes, help from my honorary family." She nudges Pinkie and Twilight.

"Wow. What about the stuff that falls of trees? Detached limbs, leaves, and stuff? That must pile up." I'm honestly concerned, in a way. It really must be a lot of work.

"Almost bi-montly we rake fallen leaves and drag timber to a clearin' in… the eighth acre? And we hold a big bonfire. Takes a lot of time for it all to burn away. And awful wasteful. But nopony needs firewood til winter, and we're a long way from then." As if a great big exclamation point explodes in my head, I have a realization. I rush back to Applejack, looking her eagerly in the eyes.

"What if I could put all that excess to use? Literally all of it."

"I'd.. I'd have ta ask how you mean to use up near half a thousand pounds of timber every two weeks.."

"I'm new in town, I'm part of the expansion of Ponyville's guard, but I work at the forge. We're going to be doing a lot of work here, more than ever before, and most of it requires a lot of heat. Do you see where I'm going?" I smile, excited.

"You want to use our debris for forgin'? Shucks, I can't see why not. How do we get it over there? We ain't got near 'nough carts of our own to haul it all in even a couple of trips!"

"I'll build you more, and I'll work on getting my forge mates to help haul it over. It'll be a business trade."

"I don't know if a couple'a carts is worth that much time and effort.." She grimaces. "I hate to keep denyin' ya, even through questions, but I don't see how this'll pan out."

"Uh.." Shit! Think, think! "Oh, well, I will personally repair or rebuild your tools and equipment for free. For as long as this agreement stands."

"I… I can't think of nothin' else that could be wrong." She shrugs. "I'd say we got ourselves a deal!" I puff out my chest, gleeful. She sticks out a hoof for a shake, and I take it up. "Next time we harvest the fallen stuff is in a week or so. Don't really run on a schedule. Think you could whip up them carts tween then 'n now?"

"It'll be hard with my workload, but a commitment is a commitment, and I won't start this off on a bad hoof."

"Ohmygosh, are you guys friends now!? You're totally friends now!" Pinkie squeals enthusiastically. "I've made a lot of friends before, you know I'm friends with everypony in town but you know what I have never ever witnessed a friendship form before not like intently watching kind of witnessed only sort of mentally took note but here I just saw it in HD detail and it was so cool!"

"Calm down, Pinkie!" Twilight exclaims, and pulls Pinkie out of the air, where she was floating, presumably from joy. "Really, though, it's an interesting process to watch."

"It _is_ really interesting to watch, but I just remembered, I gotta dash! Pumpkin and Pound are probably waiting for me!" Pinkie looks between us and the town, ready to sprint away.

"Then go. We'll see you later." Twilight gives her pink friend a small push, and we all watch as she becomes a pink blur.

"I'd better go too. Workday for everypony should be starting soon." I say, blushing.

"Indeed." Applejack tips her hat and removes herself from the fence. "I'll see you 'round, partners." Twilight and I turn and leave too.

It's only ten in the morning, and it's already a good day.


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

I wake up fully rested. It really is nice to sleep in a bed again. I get out, stretch my hind legs and then my front legs. I then use my levitation to make the bed up before putting on my scarf. I then start to polish my uniform. I don't have work today but on the off chance I babysit, Rarity's sister will probably think I'm cooler if I wear it. I trot down the cafeteria around 9:30 and grab a blueberry muffin to go. Then I leave to wander around town until 11. I pass the center with all the shopping booths and strangely enough none of the mares manning the flower booths have a grey coat like the one that dropped a tulip on my table. Ponyville is the type of town where everyone does their thing everyday so I come to the conclusion my tulip wasn't a promotion or accident a mare actually bought it as a gift _for me. _I smile a little as I continue trotting through the town. Now that I've been here awhile I actually start to slow down and notice how every building is different at least in some small way if not big differences. The ponies here made everything their own. This town is weird, but I guess it's a good thing. I mean they would've changed it if it didn't work for them. Before I know it its already 10:30 and I'm at the front door of Carousel Boutique I barely step in when I'm ambushed by three little fillies.

"Wow, check it out! She wasn't kidding, it is a guard, his uniform is so shiny!" Says a little white unicorn filly with curled lavender and pink mane. It kind of reminds me of cotton candy.

"Golly, do ya think he's ever had to beat up a pony?" A little yellow filly with an apple red mane inquires.

"Well, duh, I mean look at his blade's sheath and his confident stance; clearly you don't want to mess with him." a tangerine pegasus filly with a purple mane answers confidently.

"Um, hello girls. I'm here to see Rarity for an appointment, is she busy?" I ask politely.

"Oh no, my sister should be down soon," the little white one says.

"Ah, then you must be Sweetie Belle, it's a pleasure to meet you, little miss." I say with a small bow. I may not like socializing but that doesn't mean I don't know how to be respectful. And it's important to make foals feel respected and important; it helps build their confidence and self-image.

"Oh there you are darling," Rarity says, trotting down the stairs, wearing red glasses and a tape measure around her neck. Her mane is a little out of place. It's obvious she's been busy but didn't want to cancel on me. The filies continue to ask questions to me and each other, but it isn't long before Rarity makes them leave and go upstairs.

"Now, here are a few designs I worked up for you. Please be honest with what you think. If you don't like any of them, I will work out more." She holds up thirteen sketches with a number for each in the upper right corner. As I glance through them all I am astonished at how much detail she's put in to all of them. I know designers in Canterlot that don't take the design phase this seriously, and their whole job is designing. I take deep consideration of each of them, until I settle on one.

"Number 3 looks really good, may I go with that please?"

"Of course darling! This is one of my favorites. Simple, regal. No pants, considering it's a Pinkie Pie party. Now," She drops the sketches, separating the one I choose from the others and levitates a color chart over , ", pick 2 or 3 colors please."

"Purple, white, and silver," I say scanning the chart. I highlight each specific color with a dot of magic, as I am well aware that designers never use single-word colors, and would definitely ask for clarification.

"Excellent, that's just what I was thinking." She uses a marker to circle the ones I chose and sets the chart by sketch number 3. It's a basic tuxedo with cufflinks and a collared shirt and my scarf to replace the tie, with small but unmistakable details all about.

"Now here are some fabric samples I have in stock. You need to select one for the suit and one for the shirt," I take them in my hooves and feel them one by one and finally select two. She then levitates my selections back to the pile with my other choices. "Thank you dearie now I should have it ready by monday if that is alright," I nod and the bell from the door rings as two mares trot in one of being the mare from the meeting I had. It's funny she didn't strike me as the boutique type. For a minute, she's focused on her friend, but once she looks up and about she notices me, and I see recognition in her eyes.

I figure it best that I acknowledge her so I speak first, "Hello, Miss.. Copper, wasn't it?" She looks shocked, surprised, as I call out to her and walk towards her.

"Oh, uh, yes, but you really don't have to call me 'miss'. Just Copper will do.." Her friend elbows her out of a short pause, causing her to continue: "This is my friend and co-worker, Pilot Light. She's, ah, making me take a day off."

"Well if you are the worker I think you are you deserve it," I say. Even though I don't know her well, she seems to have the same working personality as me. She blushes slightly. Oh great, I embarrassed her. Or worse, I offended her! I offended a mare! My mom is surely rolling in her grave as we speak!

"Says the stallion who forced an impromptu meeting without knowing what he was meeting about," She replies, a single eyebrow raised. Ok, so I haven't offended her. I must say she's quite clever with that quick of a comeback. She doesn't notice but her friend snickers at the exchange.

"Sorry you must have me confused with somepony else, miss two copies," I say trying to gain back some ground.

"Maybe the same guy who had to check to see if he was able to hoof over the second copy, the one with the most basic information. I do hope he's not making a fool of himself, wherever he is." She smirks. She's really got the upper hoof here. I grit my teeth. What do I say to that?

" ..White flag...you really got the hang of this, practice these word wars with siblings I'm guessing," What else was there to do but bow down? It was really enjoyable while it lasted. Whether she knows it or not this mare had made me feel like I was with my brother again, before I made his life a living hell… just for a while.

"No, actually. Single foal." She looks down at her hooves, like, directly at her hooves with a despondent stare. "I was teased a lot, and I've never been the toughest, until recently, so I had to do something. Finding other foals' crippling flaws and exploiting them ended up being my self defense." She shrugs. "I always apologized though."

"Well you're nicer than me.. . my temper usually put the other foals...and ponies out cold and into the infirmary," I'm embarrassed to admit it, especially to a stranger but if she's going to be in Ponyville she will probably find out sooner or later.

"Someday soon I'll be physically strong enough to do that. Not that I'd ever want to, for myself, anyway. Working in a forge makes you incredibly fit and capable." She looks at her friend, who nods.

"Oh yeah. Copper's got the head start though, she's been doing this at least four years longer than we have." Copper, I notice, blushes and looks down, away. She does that a lot.

"Well best of luck to you and in the meantime, if you ever need me to clock anyone I'd be happy to help. I personally find the look on their arrogant faces upon impact to be quite priceless." I was going to turn back to Rarity, to pay my bill, but she asks a question before I can.

"Do you get in fights a lot? Equestria's so peaceful, I've always thought the guard don't have much to do.. Although, now that I think about it, maybe it's because of your hard, unseen work that the country's as peaceful as it is."

"Well, yes … but I suppose it isn't always when I'm protecting Equestria. My father says-" I am interrupted by the tangerine filly again, as she comes out of nowhere.

"Cutie Mark Crusaders Canterlot secret conspiracy interview go!" She nearly shrieks. Her friends gather around, apparently deciding to ignore Rarity's request that they stay upstairs.

"What?" I ask blankly and they all stare at me with a newfound focus.

"The mare is right.. it is peaceful, maybe.. _too _peaceful, huh, bub?" The yellow one with apple red mane says, knocking her little elbow into mine with a look of serious suspicion on her face. I don't know how to react to this, so I stare back, dumbfounded.

"Hey, uh, maybe if you had waited a little longer, he'd have given away a whole bunch of information like a silly chap, and you wouldn't have aroused his suspicions. Next time you want to secretly learn something, just act normal. You'll find that ponies let out more than they mean to." Copper says wittily, and to my rescue. I have to wonder where she was schooled because her rhetoric is exceptional.

"Aww man, why didn't we think of that ," Sweetie Belle asks the others in disappointment.

"I don't know but maybe you'll get another chance later on down the road," I say calmly as I finally pass over the bits and the gemstone to pay off Rarity. I back away with a smile and head out.

"You didn't need me to babysit still, did you?" I ask once I am at the door, thinking about my promise.

"Not at all dearie, thank you, though you are such a gentlestallion." She says and starts to talk to Copper and Pilot Light. I am already outside when Pilot calls back, "We need a stallions opinion, can you stay a while and help?"

"Um, ok…" I respond hesitantly, trotting inside. Pilot launches right in.

"Okay, so Copper here is this _beautiful_ mare, right? And she doesn't seem to realize it, no matter how much anypony tells her." Pilot starts. Copper noticeably shrinks under both the praise and the light jeer. "And she's going with us to that party when our first month is up, right, and I'm telling her she's got to dress up at least a little, and she's like 'no I don't think so, I don't like it' and I'm like, it's kind of a bit of an obligation to at least a little. Like, up-do her mane or wear a necklace or something. Don't you think a pretty lady like Copper should flaunt her stuff a little? Honest opinion." She wraps an arm around me, gesturing somewhat wildly at the furiously blushing Copper.

"Um I… uh.. she is a very attractive mare.. I think maybe something simpler in Rarity's line would suit her best.. she doesn't need too many laces or bows…so I don't thin_k flauntin_g isn't necessary.. " I blush a little being put on the spot but I answer honestly as requested. Rarity speaks up, finally:

"I agree. A mare must hold herself with not only her dashing good looks, but with her sophistication and grace. Copper here doesn't need much to really push her natural look. You are right about the mane, though, Pilot, her mane needs something done with it. Since you're so thoughtful on the matter, Echo, what do you think? I could do a wonderful side bun, or a toss, you know, kind of pull it all to the side and curl it?" She talks as she pulls numeral accessories from various places around the store. All simple, all elegant.

"Toss," I say simply getting a little uncomfortable with the questions. Sure they needed a stallions opinion but really the girls can decide what hairdo they like.

"I think so too." She gently tears the braids apart, and messes with the overwhelming amount of hair that unleashes. With countless pins held in her levitating magic, she starts setting it into a general form. Her mane is so thick that it covers her ear when Rarity shoves it all to the left side of her head. "Mmm, now what do you think about a mane accessory? Something simple, not a crown. Decorative pins?" She looks directly at me. "And gold, or bronze, do you suppose? More silver would get lost in her hair. Echo?" She bats her eyelashes and I try not to feel angry.

"Maybe… bronze colored ribbons?" I say, more reserved. I can feel the anger boiling. They don't mean it...Miss Rarity isn't like that .. she's nice. I even said that Copper was attractive, so they can't be trying to call me.. the _other thing._

"Ribbons? Doing what, exactly? In bows? No, no, no bows in this adult mare's mane, I'll not have it. What else?" She continues.

"How in Tartarus should I know!? I'm not a mare, I'm not gay! You're the one with the boutique! I'm not dumb, so quit playing with me and leave me alone!" The nerve! The nerve these mares have they aren't any different at all! I stomp, grit my teeth, glare. I can't contain the anger anymore, and I won't! The room is quiet for a single moment, before the ludicrous Pilot snaps:

"What the hell, _sir_, but that's not even what this was about." She makes a really nasty face, scoffing, "My good friend here has zero self esteem and I thought if she heard somepony who wasn't a sympathizing mare totally compliment her and dress her up, it would make her feel a little better about herself. Rarity was just eager for your opinion, for whatever personal reason that was. There wasn't a pony in here insinuating you played for the other team, and why the hell would we anyway?! You jerk." The tiny mare glares at me, and with several quick strides is across the room to deliver an equally tiny punch to the shoulder, which actually does hurt. "You don't have to be a mare to have opinions on how things look, _by the way_, so I'd like it if you'd take your sexism and go _shove it somewhere unpleasant!_" She yells before punching me again and continuing to glare. I am taken aback, entirely. After a moment of silence passes I speak:

"Sorry..bronze pins..with swords or shields as the decorative tip…" Before they respond or ask me another question I gallop out and hightail it as far away as possible. Dammit, I did it_ again._


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

When I finally hit the hay on my third day since striking the deal with Applejack, it's six in the morning. I sleep for three hours, then rise to repeat the cycle of hard work. First, forge work, commissioned work. That's always first. Then, when the sun goes down or no more can be done, I do more work for the making of the many carts. I've delivered three already, and we've used those three to ship some of their scraps over, efficiently and sufficiently powering the forge's other works. But Applejack's sister and friends got into an undescribed incident, leaving the family with a whopping four less carts and other such tools and supplies than normal. I've been working nonstop on repairs since then, as well as making even more carts. The whole forge is supposed to help haul the massive pile of dead lumber and leaves, and there's not nearly as many carts as there need to be, not even counting the lost four.

When I wake up again, Pilot is nudging me awake. I blink open my eyes, give a tiny, fake smile, and roll over and out of the bed, wobbling where I stand.

"Dude." A sound of judgement and worry.

"Hwhat?" I mutter.

"Dude." Added concern and a hint of 'need I even ask'.

"Whaat?" I slur.

"Dude." Rock hard planning and determination coming into play here. "Bosses say you need a day the hell off, and I agree. I'm taking you out, a day on the town. Doing some dumb filly shopping for our fancy party we got to go to. Okay?" Before my still sleeping brain can process it, she shoves me down on the bed. "I'm going to braid your mane, and we'll eat breakfast and we'll go out, and have a nice damn day. A day of no working. I'll make one of the boys do some of your repair work, but you are not touching so much as an ingot."

"Piiiiloooooot…" I whine. I'm a stubborn butt, really. I don't like other people doing my work, and I don't like being underestimated about what I can handle. Give me some coffee, and hell, I'll be fine.

"Tut, tut. There's to be no arguing. You're coming with me, we're having a day out. The end."

So it passes that Pilot force-fed me a healthy, whole breakfast, and dragged me out by the tail to go shopping. I have to admit, I don't hate it. It's nice, getting new things, dressing up, playing make-believe. I just have so much to do, and I love to work, and it was so unexpected, this 'day off'. I mean, Iron and Forgery must really like me, or something, to be so adamant that I take a rest. Or maybe they just don't want me to burn out. I'd be a wasted employee then.

Pilot takes me out for a coffee, and I get an iced chai, while she gets some kind of frappucino. We spend the morning walking by parks and sightseeing, and by the sun is high in the sky, we're ready for lunch. Simple sandwich wraps, and smoothies. Pilot's really trying to spoil me. As we eat, she strikes up a conversation.

"So, we don't do this often."

"No." I reply simply.

"You always find excuses." She says, pointedly.

"I'm always busy. Well, not always, but a lot of the time."

"No, you don't like going out, so you make yourself busy."

"No, that's not.. true."

"Yes it is. Why don't you like going out, spending time with friends? I mean, every week me an' the boys go out for a party, or bowling or whatever. And you're always welcome to come with us. So why not? If it's a shyness thing, you know we're here to keep you strong, make you feel safe. Is it anxiety, nervousness, what?" Damn you, Pilot, for being so perceptive.

"I, uh.. I don't… I've always been an oddball, Pilot. I've never liked being around a lot of ponies, and I never felt comfortable relaxing in public. Like.. Gods, how do I even explain it.." I don't want to, for one thing. My biology is too damn weird. I'm not normal, and I don't want to explain why I'm not. I don't want to be perceived as what I am.. "Pilot, I'm just better off, happier, doing my work, and when we do go out, I try my hardest to have fun with you, and I do, but… It's something like anxiety, I guess. I just don't sit well amongst so many people.." Pilot is silent for a while, before she takes a large, tearing bite of her sandwich, which she then talks through.

"Yeah, okay. If you say so. I'm glad you try to have fun with us when we hang out outside of work, but if you don't like going 'out' out, we can always have a fun night in. You and me and the boys, maybe the bosses, we get together, have a game night. Or a picnic, behind the forge. Would that make you more comfortable?"

"Y-yeah." I take a slow slurp from my smoothie. "Why do you try so hard to get me out of my shell?"

"Because. I wanna be great friends with you, and friends try to understand each other and improve each other's lives. I mean, I don't want to be arrogant and say 'I know what's best for you', but I think that sometimes pushing the boundaries of what you do and don't do and what you're comfortable with is good. I want to help, I want to be friends."

"Okay, but why me? You've got 'the boys' already, and I know you have more friends from the city."

"Because you're here, because you're a mare, because I think you're fascinating! I mean.." She shrugs. "Why not?"

"I.. I don't know."

"Exactly." Pilot raises her eyebrows like one might raise a glass, and smiles. "Now finish your lunch. We're getting you a dress, or something, for the party. Because it's required that you go to the party."

"Bu-"

"Required." She gives me the death glare, and I shrink back, and take a nibble of my sandwich.

A half hour later, we're walking towards the 'Carousel Boutique', which Pilot found on her first day out and became incredibly interested in.

"So, what kind of style are you thinking of? Something blitzy, or… Flashy? Eye-catching? Regal?" Pilot poses in what she thinks are accurate depictions of each 'style'.

"Simple. Typical. Something that blends into the crowd." I say, immediately. Pilot glares at me. "What?"

"You is what! How can you just.. not.. want to show off?"

"Show off what?"

"YOU!" She grabs my face, shrieking. "You're so talented, so cool, so dedicated, and gods dammit, to top it off, you're so damn beautiful! How can you not want to, like, totally own that?!"

"Pilot, I'm not all that.. I'm so.. average. I'm nothing special. I'm really not."

"Bull. I call bull-" I shove my hoof in her face.

"Pilot, there are foals here!"

"Fine. But I am going to make you see you're more than you think." She huffily trots ahead to the boutique, opening the door for me. I sigh and walk in. For a minute, I'm captivated by the decor, the simple nobility of it. All is ordered, but pleasant. I like it. I think I'll like this place.

As my eyes sweep the room, I notice the owner, and the stallion I met for our business meeting. I don't know what to say, but he speaks first, trotting towards me:

"Hello, Miss.. Copper, wasn't it?" I nod, a little surprised he remembered me.

"Oh, uh, yes, but you really don't have to call me 'miss'. Just Copper will do.." I say, nervous. Pilot elbows me pretty hard in the middle of my pause, and I remember to introduce her. "This is my friend and co-worker, Pilot Light. She's, ah, making me take a day off."

"Well if you are the worker I think you are you deserve it," He says, smiling. I feel my face heat up, and I gather my thoughts. When I look up, I reply:

"Says the stallion who forced an impromptu meeting without knowing what he was meeting about," I say cooly. If he's making comparisons between us, I think I should point out the differences.

"Sorry you must have me confused with somepony else, miss two copies," He replies, smirking. I smile back. If this is a word-based smackdown, I am about to crush him.

"Maybe the same guy who had to check to see if he was able to hoof over the second copy, the one with the most basic information. I do hope he's not making a fool of himself, wherever he is." I smirk right back.

" ..White flag...you really got the hang of this; practice these word wars with siblings I'm guessing," He nearly mutters. I shake my head, smiling more softly now that I've 'won'.

"No, actually. Single foal. I was teased a lot, and I've never been the toughest, until recently, so I had to do something. Finding other foals' crippling flaws and exploiting them ended up being my self defense." I shrug, staring at my hooves. "I always apologized though."

"Well you're nicer than me.. . my temper usually put the other foals...and ponies out cold and into the infirmary,"

"Someday soon I'll be physically strong enough to do that. Not that I'd ever want to, for myself, anyway. Working in a forge makes you incredibly fit and capable." Feeling nervous about doing all the talking, I make a nod to Pilot. She's always got something to say.

"Oh yeah. Copper's got the head start though, she's been doing this at least four years longer than we have." Dammit, she brought it right back to me. I blush harder, and a little more violently.

"Well best of luck to you and in the meantime, if you ever need me to clock anyone I'd be happy to help. I personally find the look on their arrogant faces upon impact to be quite priceless." He mock flexes a leg, showing off I guess.

"Do you get in fights a lot? Equestria's so peaceful, I've always thought the guard don't have much to do.. Although, now that I think about it, maybe it's because of your hard, unseen work that the country's as peaceful as it is." I can't help but ask. I've always been curious, really. I put in a lot of work on weapons, so there's a demand for them, but there's never any heat or discussion about the Guard, ever.

"Well, yes … but I suppose it isn't always when I'm protecting Equestria. My father says-" He tries to explain, but a young pegasus filly bursts in, interrupting him.

"Cutie Mark Crusaders Canterlot secret conspiracy interview go!" She exclaims. Two more fillies show up, and gather around Echo.

"What?" He asks.

"The mare is right.. it is peaceful, maybe.. _too _peaceful, huh, bub?" The earth pony filly, yellow with a candy apple mane and tail, questions him. He seems completely unsure of what to do, so after a moment of really awkward silence I say to them:

"Hey, uh, maybe if you had waited a little longer, he'd have given away a whole bunch of information like a silly chap, and you wouldn't have aroused his suspicions. Next time you want to secretly learn something, just act normal. You'll find that ponies let out more than they mean to." I flourish it with a wink. Echo looks grateful.

"Aww man, why didn't we think of that ," The white unicorn filly moans as who I assume is Rarity gives her a look.

"I don't know but maybe you'll get another chance later on down the road," Echo says, handing Rarity money. He makes his way to the door, then stops.

"You didn't need me to babysit still, did you?" He asks.

"Not at all dearie, thank you, though you are such a gentlestallion." She says and turns to us. Echo walk away. Pilot watches me carefully, before whispering in Rarity's ear, and after she nods, Pilot turns and yells after Echo:

"We need a stallions opinion, can you stay a while and help?" His look of confusion is as clear as my embarrasment. What the hell do they think they're doing?

"Um, ok…" He trots in, perplexed. Oh gods, oh gods. Pilot wastes no time.

"Okay, so Copper here is this _beautiful_ mare, right? And she doesn't seem to realize it, no matter how much anypony tells her." Goddamn it, what is she doing? Why? "And she's going with us to that party when our first month is up, right, and I'm telling her she's got to dress up at least a little, and she's like 'no I don't think so, I don't like it' and I'm like, it's kind of a bit of an obligation to at least a little. Like, up-do her mane or wear a necklace or something. Don't you think a pretty lady like Copper should flaunt her stuff a little? Honest opinion." She slides over, draping herself over him, while pointing at me. I swear, if my face gets any hotter, I'll burst into flames.

"Um I… uh.. she is a very attractive mare.. I think maybe something simpler in Rarity's line would suit her best.. she doesn't need too many laces or bows…so I don't thin_k flauntin_g isn't necessary.. " I bite my lip, and try to hide from everypony's view, but it does nothing. After a minute of silence Rarity speak

"I agree. A mare must hold herself with not only her dashing good looks, but with her sophistication and grace. Copper here doesn't need much to really push her natural look. You are right about the mane, though, Pilot, her mane needs something done with it. Since you're so thoughtful on the matter, Echo, what do you think? I could do a wonderful side bun, or a toss, you know, kind of pull it all to the side and curl it?" She levitates numerous objects from around the store, holding them up around me for their consideration.

"Toss.." Another moment of quiet while the artisan thinks it over.

"I think so too." She starts pulling my braids apart, and I'm far too embarrassed to try to stop her, my hooves are gods damned _planted._ "Mmm, now what do you think about a mane accessory? Something simple, not a crown. Decorative pins? And gold, or bronze, do you suppose? More silver would get lost in her hair. Echo?" Rarity keeps going as she messes about with my hair.

"Maybe… bronze colored ribbons?"

"Ribbons? Doing what, exactly? In bows? No, no, no bows in this adult mare's mane, I'll not have it. What else?" Rarity scoffs at the idea. Out of seemingly nowhere, Echo bursts:

"How in Tartarus should I know!? I'm not a mare, I'm not _gay!_ You're the one with the boutique! I'm not dumb, so quit playing with me and leave me alone!" He stomps, grating his teeth. I hide behind my flung about hair, and after a hideous moment of awful awkwardness, Pilot snaps into gear, angry.

"What the hell, _sir_, but that's not even what this was about. My good friend here has zero self esteem and I thought if she heard somepony who wasn't a sympathizing mare totally compliment her and dress her up, it would make her feel a little better about herself. Rarity was just eager for your opinion, for whatever personal reason that was. There wasn't a pony in here insinuating you played for the other team, and why the hell would we anyway?! You jerk." She breaks her rant to deal him a swift punch, probably the strongest she can give. "You don't have to be a mare to have opinions on how things look, _by the way_, so I'd like it if you'd take your sexism and go _shove it somewhere unpleasant!_" She screams, and punches him again. His lips flutter a moment before he spits out:

"Sorry..bronze pins..with swords or shields as the decorative tip…" Echo turns and runs out of the boutique. Pilot looks pleased with herself. From somewhere inside me I find a need… Like a message from a vision, I feel like I ought to go after him, for reasons more than moral obligation. I take a hair tie back from Rarity and hurriedly say, as I begin to gallop away, "I'll be back, Pilot, I just gotta go!"

And then, for no reason that I can yet comprehend, I chase after Prestissimo Echo.


	12. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Damn it, no, I've done it again! I am so stupid! Losing my temper, misinterpreting others' actions and remarks, letting old scorns get the better of me; I thought I was getting better! I've made a fool of myself _yet again_, and to ponies who I could have been, I don't know, friends with? I grit my teeth as I gallop angrily away. Damn it, damn it, damn it!

"Hey!" Somepony calls out in the background, but I don't care. Whatever hassle or argument they're getting in is nothing compared to my ever living shame right now. I scowl harder, if such a thing is possible.

"Hey!" Somepony calls again. I slow, and I start to think maybe I should turn to see what's going on when I am bombarded with the mass of another living being. I grab them, whomever it is, with my magic and keep them and myself steady; I'd rather not fall over in the middle of a busy street. "Oof! Sorry." It's Copper!

"What, ah, are you doing here?" I ask, embarrassed all over again.

"Well, I…" She bites her lip for a moment. "I don't know. Some feeling of kinship. I was made uncomfortable by all that, back there, too, and with how upset _you_ got, I wanted to.. I guess, express that I relate to that. I mean, obviously you've got your own deal, and we were upset for different reasons, but.. upset all the same." She shrugs.

"I guess that's.. nice of you?" I shuffle my hooves, not sure what to do. What a strange mare she is, this Copper Wind. I suppose I'm an equally strange stallion, though. "I should apologize for my outburst, though. I mentioned before that I've got a nasty temper, but I've been working recently to solve that, and there's really no excuse for my jumping to conclusions like that."

"Well, you must have a reason. I'd bet a situation like what you thought was happening has _actually_ happened before.. But that's none of my business."

" Well… um, I appreciate it really and I'm sorry . I meant every word of my selection though I think you'd look very nice….but instead of shields tell rarity bolts and screws for the hairpin tops…," I comment hesitantly. She probably won't want my opinion but I felt the need to correct my choice.

"Oh, well, thanks. For that, and for humoring Pilot in the first place." She blushes, hard, looking down and away again. "That kind of theme would probably go really well, considering my occupation. You.. really do have good ideas, uh, about that, um, stuff. I'm really bad at that sort of thing.."

"I suppose that's only natural though. You seem very humble and so stuff like this wouldn't have too much appeal to it. I grew up in Canterlot. There, if you don't stand out or have bad mannerisms you're invisible to the whole population." It's not that I don't like Canterlot. Honestly I love it, but this statement is true- Canterlot is second only to Manehaten with high end ponies and their desires to show off. I am not exception.

"I know what you mean. My parents used to dress me up really nice, when I was a little filly, but I kind of like blending in and disappearing. It's better that way…" Her sentence fades off, leaving questions behind.

"Now, I can't believe that , a kind hardworking soul like you deserves to be recognized..maybe not idolized but recognized." I try smiling at her to help her feel better I feel like I damaged her self esteem even more somehow by my outburst. Her friend did say she had very low self esteem to begin with.

"Nah. I don't like limelight. Really, I think I'm allergic to it." She cracks a great big grin, one that I can't tell if it's fake or not. "I get all shakey and thirsty and start sneezing up a storm." She laughs.

"Oh dear no no no! Silly mare, no wonder ! You've only experienced limelight everyone knows you should start with lemonlight to break in the reaction so it's not as fierce."

"Oh, you know, you're probably right. Ha, maybe I shouldn't have skipped finishing school."

"Oh you skipped, went straight into an apprenticeship then?" I ask now that the conversation has become slightly less awkward.

"Oh, yeah. Parents couldn't really afford it, and when finishing school is like a bow for the certification of elementary school, I didn't really need it. I only need a technical degree to work in the metalworking industry, which my apprenticeship fulfilled. What about you? What do you have to do to be a guard?" She asks as she pins some of her mane back.

"Well I'm in it ..so not alot I suppose." It's kind of a lie training is intense but I'm not really the guard type so I suppose maybe I just thought it was intense.

"Pfff. Really? Are you sworn to secrecy about it?" She grins and asks.

"That depends on who's asking. You wouldn't be part of the cutie something something canterlot conspiracy theorists would you?" I say laughing at the memory of those three fillies

"No, I am not." She pauses, and I go to answer, but she continues, "I'm the _founder_!" She holds a straight almost-glare for a few seconds before breaking down laughing.

" You fiend! You'll never get me to talk! Never!" I laugh before calming down and say, " but truly it's just some training around 16 weeks. I found it intense but that's just me,"

"Aw man, I should'a been a guard. Sixteen weeks? Pssh. Six years of slowly progressing training is an eternity compared to that." She remarks. "Actually I really liked my training, even if it was really slow earning new things to learn and do without supervision. I was always a very responsible filly, and I never understood why I had to be taught something five times before being allowed to do it myself. Must have been nice, training to be a guard."

"Not really, I mean, yeah it was 16 weeks for training but you constantly get placed away from home; it makes you homesick. Also, neither weaponry nor guarding are really my talent so it can get really tiring sometimes." I say, contemplating.

"Huh. Why'd you do that to yourself?" She asks, serious.

" I want Equestria to be as protected and safe as it can be. I can't stand seeing ponies get hurt when they haven't done anything wrong. The way I see it that's worth putting your talent on your back hoof." I respond honestly.

"I guess I'm lucky that my talent automatically adds to Equestrian safety, unless every weapon I make is being stolen by, I don't know, terrorist griffons? Because I completely understand what you mean, Echo." She closes her eyes, thinking. At least, I think that's what she's doing.

" Well I'm glad you can relate, again I'm terribly sorry." I say smiling.

"Sorry? What for?" She tips her head back and to the side, curious.

"Yelling at you and your friends . I should've known Rarity and you would never done that and that you have a good taste in friends." I say, lowering my head.

"Oh. I didn't think you were yelling at_ me_…" Her ears drop, like rocks in a pond. "Um.."

" Oh no… I mean.. I wasn't ..but… it felt like I was.. if that makes sense…." I say trying to amend yet another mistake to come from my big mouth.

"Oh, well.. you're forgiven? This conversation has taken a weird turn."

" Agreed. I guess you should get back to Rarity and that friend of yours. Don't let me ruin a rare girls day for you."

"Well. Despite what happened today, it's not, ah, ruined. I mean, I got to talk to you in a serious manner, and not on business. That's.. nice." Everything about her perks up at that. "But I guess I'll see you at the party, huh?"

"Maybe. I hope to escape midway if my boss doesn't keep me there. He says it's mandatory to attend..but if you're there I bet it would be nicer. Another wallflower for the vine." I say with a smile. I'm glad she's not upset.

"Right. Same for you. Anyway, have a good rest of the day. I'll tell Rarity and Pilot you said sorry, okay?" She says as she turns to go.

"Yes, right. I really am, you know, sorry."

"I get it. Have a good day, Echo." She says with a smile, before going on her way. I half-heartedly wave at her as she goes, but she doesn't see me. I decide to make my way down to Sugarcube Corner. A day like today deserves a sugary pick-me-up. I reach Sugarcube Corner and go up to Mrs. Cake, who is behind the counter.

"Can I have a snickerdoodle please?" I place two bits on the counter.

"Of course, Echo! You know, Pinkie is so excited for the party and she wanted to see what food and drinks you want there." She says taking the bits before giving me the soft cookie.

"Really she wants my opinion?" I ask. It takes a while for me to process the question.

"Oh yes, she has taken a liking to you and thinks you're a challenge, so she is extra determined."

"Oh.. well ...anything with cinnamon is really nice, and whatever she usually brings for the drinks I'm sure will be fine.. tell her I said thank you," I leave, somewhat confused, using my magic to hold the cookie as I head home. I finally reach my room and start taking my armor off when there is a knock at the door. I go to open it and there is a mailmare . Her coat is a light grey almost that of a lonely storm cloud and her main is a fair blonde, it isn't styled but the way it falls by itself is actually quite appealing. She's cross eyed and yet , when she looks at me I can tell I'm all she's focusing on .

"Care package for a Sergeant Echo " Her voice is particularly feminine and cheerful.

"Thank you very much miss," I levitate the package over to my bed and then sign for it. She smiles and nods before flying off down the hall. I am about to close my door when I hear a crash. I turn around and gallop over there, by the sounds of it she bumped into something but by the time I reach the stairs and see what happened, other ponies are already helping her get it under control. I go back and close my door.

My attention is brought back to the package, where it sits pristine and waiting. I search the room for a knife or scissors. After a few minutes of searching, I manage to find a pair of scissors in my letter drawer. I open the package, knowing it's from home. In the box are a few letters, some photos, and from the looks of itJet has a special somepony..or at least a new friend. Which is nice, and it looks like both him and father are healthy. After I take the photos out I see a wooden box filled with my mothers old recipe cards for when I have time to cook, and my music box! I smile; it's the most gorgeous piece of craftsmanship I've ever known. It is mostly oak but it has silver linings ornately arranged into the patterns of trees and vines, flowers and mushrooms and little lights, the detail reminiscent of old fairy stories you only find in pre-discordian ages. I had told them I didn't want to bring it or want them to send it because I was afraid it would break. They never listen to me, and I suppose it's a good thing in a weird way. I won't ever admit it to their faces, but they have a better understanding of what I need than I do sometimes. I unpack the rest of the box. Then I put the photos on the wall, the recipe cars in the small pantry, and my music box on my nightstand. I decide to read the letters tomorrow and put them on the nightstand too. I crawl under the covers and use my magic to start the music box. It plays one of my favorite songs of all time. I remember mother joking saying she didn't see what was so great about the song, even though she liked it too, and she still payed a unicorn to magically alter the box so it could play all of the complicated instruments of the song. I relax under the sound of the pleasant song, and start to drift off. I know it's still earlier but I just want to spend the rest of my day off sleeping.


	13. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

I walk away, waving. My heart is pounding like I just gave a speech to the princesses, but not from the actual conversation, I think. I don't know. I've heard stallion and mare alike talk about feeling like this, calling it a crush, but I don't think that's what's happening here. I mean, it certainly feels important, but not because I'm crushing. Like the rush of a vision, of things predestined and monumentally important. I can't explain it, though. Because I have no context of this from before, the predetermined-ness of a vision without the vision itself. Shame.

I rush back to Rarity and Pilot, who aren't talking, which is surprising, considering that Pilot is a gossip mare if I ever knew one.

"Sorry. I.. wanted to talk to him for a minute." Rarity looks up, guilty looking. Pilot looks away, angry and visibly flustered. "Echo wanted to say he's sorry for yelling, he's got.. reasons. But he definitely didn't mean to insult anypony, or anything. He was just sort of caught off guard." I offer a small smile, trying to be convincing. I don't know the stallion well, but I can guess as to why he'd react that way, and he practically confirmed my guess.

"Yeah, well. I'm sorry I yelled too. I'm _not_ sorry for what I said, just for the yelling part." Pilot says, eyes swinging my way.

"And I'm quite sorry for pressuring him so much. He just seemed so eager to answer, and I wanted to help Pilot with her little plan." Rarity says. "I'm incredibly sorry for embarrassing you as well, Copper. Tell you what, I'll give you a free dressing for the party. Just come in a few hours early, and we'll get you ready, out of my own pocket as a token of my apology."

"You don't have to do that, I mean, how could you know I'd react that way, or he'd react that way?"

"Well, Pilot came in a few days ago, and told me in some detail that she planned to take you out, and asked if I could help boost your confidence with a makeover sort of thing." She points at Pilot.

"Pilot!" I turn on the smaller mare.

"What?" She smiles cheekily at me.

"That's what you were doing, you weren't buying stuff, you were exploring the town!"

"Yeah, so what? I've been planning on doing this for a long while, and the guys agree with me. _You_, missy, need to think better of yourself. I figured this would be a good step, showering you in compliments and making you feel nice." She sticks her tongue at me.

"Pilot, I'm fine with my-"

"No, no, no, no, don't feed me that. You melt under any sort of praise, like you don't deserve it, you always stare at your hooves like you've committed murder, and it's not fair of you to feel that way about yourself. Now, maybe I should have handled this differently, but you cannot be mad at me for trying to be a good friend." She looks at me softly, honestly.

She's right. I really can't.

"Well, okay, fine. It's really nice of you to do all this for me, but… I don't know."

"I get that I can't crack your shell just like that," She says as she taps her hoof on the floor, "but I want to try. Because believe it or not, you deserve to feel proud of yourself, if not for your natural assets, then for your accomplishments. I'll leave it at that."

"Th-thanks."

"So, now that this… is behind us, how about we finish what we started? I can at least finish planning your attire for the party, and send you away on a good note." Rarity says, back to business.

"Alright." I say in a small voice.

"So we did decide on a swept look, pulling your mane to the side, but what else? And what about your tail? Have we any idea what we want to do with that?"

"Well, since my mane is going to be somewhat up, how about pulling my tail in? Give it a bunched up look. And we can curl them both, a little. Like a wave? Would that look good?"

"Hmm. Yes, I do think so. I can pull your tail in with a little wreath like the Crystal Ponies do, and something small, but similar with your mane. I still like the idea of the pins, though, so we'll have to think of something extra.."

And thus the planning continued without another interruption or oddity. Rarity even goes to the extra effort of braiding all my hair back when we're done, and sends us on our way with a smile and a wave and a promise that 'it's not always like this at her boutique'. Pilot then shuffles me around town, taking me to places she'd found particularly interesting when she was on her own the other day. Around three in the afternoon, we find ourselves at a sweets store called Sugarcube Corner, where Pinkie just so happens to work. Pilot is telling me all about it as we approach, but is cut off when Pinkie sees me.

"Hey! Pilot, Copper! Fancy seeing you here!" She says as she comes running up.

"Hey, Pinkie! How's it going?" Pilot asks enthusiastically.

"Pretty nifty! I'm taking a poll, actually! See, I was thinking about parties, and how all my parties are so very similar, and if that's boring and if I should mix them up a bit, and I thought, hey, what if I see what ponies think about my parties, and get a lot of opinions on them and so _then_ I thought about alllllll the kinds of questions I could ask, like about food and drinks and songs and decorations and I kind of got overwhelmed, but once I processed it all, I realized the first thing I should do is ask about food, so I made a whooooole lot of samples, and I'm handing them out and asking what ponies think about them and stuff!"

"That's a lot.. to say with one breath.." Pilot laments. How does Pinkie do it?

"Yeah, so try some samples!" Pinkie holds a tray, overly large and presumably heavy, laden with many, many kinds of cookies, muffins, cupcakes and other such treats. She hands us each a questionnaire, with questions relating to each treat. I look back at the tray, ready to start. To my surprise, there are actually hors d'oeuvres here too. Fancy ones, too. With a shared look, Pilot and I take a test of just about every different sample, of which there seem to be about thirty. Thankfully, they are small, the size just enough to get the flavor across before disappearing in the way food normally does. This way, we aren't stuffed sick, but we get the chance to taste everything; a clever decision on Pinkie Pie's part.

The questionnaire goes quickly, although it is surprisingly detailed. When it's all done, we give the eagerly waiting Pinkie our sheets.

"So, what do you think I should bring to the party for you guys? I just realized I could ask you guys that."

"Uh… I think because the party's celebration is a little formal, the first month of our being here and such, maybe the not so sweet ones, like ten through twenty four? those are all zesty and lively, but not the overtly sweet things you'd have at, say, a birthday party. Does that make sense?" I offer, trying to be, uh, more social.

"Yeah! I get it. So something that tastes a little serious for a party that's a little serious. I can't believe I didn't realize I could theme parties with food! I usually throw everything into every kind of party, so… I guess from now on I'll be a little more selective about what I put into each party. Thanks, you guys!" Pinkie gives us a two armed hug, somehow magically balancing the tray on a hind leg. "I have more ponies to question, so I really should go, but I can't wait to see you at the party, or, gasp, even sooner!" Pinkie flashes us a giant grin before waving and hopping away. We wave and smile as we watch her go.

"Say, mind if we go inside? I want one of those rainbow cupcakes again." She smiles, remembering. "So very good."

"Nah, we can go. I think after this we can head back, though. My hooves are getting tired."

"Same." She opens the door for me as she nods.

I take a seat at one of the several tables while Pilot goes to the counter and orders. I observe the building, in all its candy-themed glory, in some hope of entertainment and relief from the ever-present pounding in my hooves. With no such luck, I turn my attention instead to the sounds of the shop, and suddenly there is so much to be invested in. Dozens of ponies all around me, each in conversation with one another. Not to eavesdrop, but hearing the voices of others in polite, happy communication with each other is so relaxing to me. But among these voices of common, everyday, peaceful talk, there is one that is… not like the others.

While the tone is not harsh, it is not pleasant. Hushed, low, like telling a bad, bad secret. I focus on this conversation because it is so unusual for a town like this.

"...hear about how Comet got in a fight? It was pretty rough."

"No, I didn't. What happened? Comet doesn't like fighting.."

"Somepony else was arguing with him, and it was just verbal for a long while, but eventually one of them crossed a line, and it was flying hooves from there."

"My goodness!" A long pause passes. ".. how bad were the injuries?"

"Not even a broken bone or a bloody nose. They'll be fine, but isn't it odd that it even happened?"

"Yeah, and shouldn't the new guard have stepped in?"

"I guess they weren't spread right for one of them to see it, you know? If it had gone on longer than the ten minutes it did, they definitely would have seen it, though."

"What are the reprimands for fighting anyway?"

With that, I pull my attention away from the conversation, having listened in far more than I should have. That is, at all. But what they had to say is interesting. Ponies are peaceful creatures by nature; we don't draw negative attention to ourselves. We abhor violence on instinct. Peace is safe, peace is easy. Violence is a perpetual risk, and it goes against every need for familial relations that we need. It… it drives us apart. The only reason we have things like the Guard are for protection against forces beyond our control, like the Everfree forest and it's untameable, unpredictable creatures. And Tirek. And, previously, Discord. We've not had dissent among our very race, not even on a small scale, since the very founding of the nation!

Since then, yes, there's been fighting in court, but only in the sense of argument, not literal hoof-to-hoof fighting. I've never heard of a brawl amongst adult ponies. Maybe school children, but never adult mares and stallions. I struggle to imagine it.

But my flow of thought is interrupted when Pilot comes back with whatever it is she's purchased, loudly talking about it in pleasant terms. As if to advertise to the other customers her appraisal she marches about, head high, sweet held in her telekinetic grip and voice proclaiming the delight that it is. I can never tell if she does this for her sake or for the bakers, but when she finds something she likes, she does this. I think she likes the attention.

The worry I had a moment before disappears, sinking into the back of my mind for the time being, but never really fading away. Still, the rest of the day is perfectly relaxing, and I don't think about again, not even when I fall asleep.


	14. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

I wake up to the sound of birds in chorus...mainly one that is really off key… Like a cat that got its tail stomped on, it truly sounds awful. I climb out of bed to shut the window but when I get there, there is a yellow mare with pink mane talking to the one of the birds. It must be the one singing off key. The bird starts singing again but much better this time, and I can't help but close my eyes and listen to the singing- now that the chorus has been improved it's actually quite lovely. The music puts a smile on my face and I can tell it is going to be a good day. I fix my bed and get ready for the day and leave for my patrol shift. As I walk I see the regular booths selling fresh produce and merchandise. I think I'll get some lilies when I get back to apologize to Rarity, Copper, and her friend Pilot. The more I think about it the more I feel bad. My behavior was completely uncalled for. My shift ends with nothing to report on. It's funny, I've read all these reports of occurrences in Ponyville that Princess Twilight took care of with her friends but ever since she became a princess things have been quiet, which was the complete opposite of what everypony expected. I go and buy the lilies and trot to Carousel Boutique to give Rarity hers. When I got through the door the quaint little bell rings as usual.

"Hello, there, Echo." She doesn't even bother with her normal jingle, seeing it's me. "I was hoping you'd stop by; I've been feeling incredibly sore about pushing you so the other day."

"Oh, it was my fault I should've known better than to think a pony as nice as you would even think about accusing or teasing another of anything like that… Which is why I got you this purple lily to say sorry ." I levitate it over to her.

"Oh my, what a gentlecolt." She says as she takes the lily from my grasp. "Are you really so sure _you_ should be apologizing? It really was Pilot and I who instigated _you_."

"The only thing you did miss Rarity was try to help a shy mare feel good about herself by bringing in a third party.. I was the one that overreacted knowing good and well I know about fashion and knowing how much you like to make things perfect for your clients. Although an apology would be nice from that Pilot for punching me.. I had ice on for a good half hour."

"She is a very surprising mare, is she not?" She gives a short giggle."Truly, Echo I am sorry. It is my job to take in details about my customers, and I completely neglected you in that area. But, it would be most unladylike to continue apologizing, so we shall let it go. We are, as my friend Rainbow Dash likes to say, 'even steven'."

"You really are a gem miss Rarity, have a good day." I turn and leave.

"Farewell, Echo, until you stop by next!" Rarity calls out, waving the lily fondly. I am just down the walk when I stop in my tracks and remember how said something about flavors and samples for the upcoming party. I gallop back in,

"Oh! Um, Pinkie and the Cakes are taking opinions for taste for the upcoming party. I'll be walking by Sugarcube Corner on my way home. Do you have a preference?"

"With Pinkie on the cooking duty, it's hard to say what will be present, you go for yourself, but I'll take that knowledge and visit Sugarcube Corner later."

"Alright. bye!" I leave again and head to the smithery. The visit goes well enough, I have no new bruising from a kick or punch although after Pilot smiled she gave me a 'I'm watching you' glare.

I trot into Sugarcube Corner, a little excited to see Pinkie again, but at first glance around the store I don't see her.

"Hello, Echo!" Mrs. Cake calls.

"Oh, hello, ma'am. How's the store been?"

"Everything's swell with us, dearie. It's been a might busy today, but that's always good for the wallet if not for my husband's back." She jokes casually. I laugh once, wanting to get to the point of my visit but not wanting to disappoint or insult her.

"Sorry to hear, ma'am. Maybe you should take a day off every couple of weeks."

"Oh we do. We have Pinkie foalsit the twins every other sunday. Next weeks our next outing."

"Speaking of Pinkie, I wanted to see her. Is she here?"

"She's upstairs. It's probably best somepony goes and checks on her; she went up there a while ago with the fakest, saddest smile on her face. I didn't want to say anything out of line right away, so I waited, but business picked up again a minute later, and I haven't been able to sneak up there to see what was wrong. Would you mind..?" I hear the concern in her voice, but I doubt it's warranted. Still, the caring is wonderful to see, always is.

"Well, I wanted to see her anyway. She won't mind me going up there?"

"It's my house, dear, and I don't mind you going up there, especially to see Pinkie."

"Alright then. Thank you, miss." I dip my head, hair bouncing slightly.

"Go, go." She shoo's me away, so I smile gratefully and head towards the stairs. I remember, after a minute of thought, which is her room. I knock softly on the door and call,

"Pinkie?" I hear a shuffle, a sniffle, and a scramble before the door clicks, the lock unregistering, and it swings open to reveal a widely smiling, red-eyed Pinkie. If she says anything, I can't tell because I can't hear anything over the all-consuming shock of the event. "_Pinkie?_"

"Hiya, Echo. What can I do you for?" Her voice is surprisingly even, but even through that, I can tell. My expert ears hear the discomfort.

"You can tell me what's wrong, because you're smile isn't real…" I reach out my right hoof to place it, comfortingly, on her shoulder. Before my hoof makes contact she bursts into tears, still trying to smile. She scoots backwards into her room, and I make to go after her, weighing the rules and standards of propriety, deciding her emotional state is reason enough I enter a mare's room unbidden.

In the moment of my hesitation, she lets herself fall face-first into her bed, sobbing unevenly. I step quietly into the room, shutting the door softly behind me. I try not to be awkward as I walk towards her and the bed, but this is not exactly a situation I've been in before. I sit down on the edge of the bed, patting her back.

"Pinkie, I know I'm new here, and we're not even that close of friends, but you can tell me what's wrong. I… I may not understand, but I'll listen, and do my best to understand. I… I want to help, Pinkie. Will you tell me what's wrong?" I say, as quietly and politely as possible. She sniffles as she turns over a little, curling up. I rescind my hoof from her back.

"Nothing's _really_ wrong. Only kind-of, sort-of, in a only-wrong-for-me kind of thing." I cock my head to side, but I let her continue. "I've been handing out taste-tests so I can organize what kind of foods to bring to what kind of parties for a week now, and I've got a lot of different responses, but everything was going pretty well, but I was still getting upset at it every night and I don't know _why_ and I don't like having a problem I don't understand because if I don't understand it I can't fix it and unfixed problems are the worst kind of problem." She sniffs. "A-anyway, just today I was getting a lot of.. n-negative feedback. It wasn't constructive, only criticism, and, and they went so far as to…." Her tears start up again, heavy in supply, the giant drops falling down her face.

"Sh, sh, it's okay now."

"But it's not! They, they said my parties are stupid, they're for foals, they're ridiculous and expensive and wasteful, and that I'm a bad pony who doesn't want to grow up, and, and… and they're pretty much right." She slumps back into the bed, staring abjectly at the pillow.

"Pinkie, that's not true. None of that is true."

"How would you know? You've never been to any of my parties, not yet. Maybe they are all that pony said they are, and you wouldn't know because you've never been to a Pinkie Pie Party."

"Well, that pony either had a terrible run in with the poison joke and says everything opposite of what they mean now or is just plain stupid and isn't worth listening to. Everypony I talk to about you says that you always do your best to make ponies happy. You do your best. _You do your best_. That's all you can do. And you do it well, I'm told. You are a fun, respectful, and kind-hearted mare by all accounts-"

"Minus one." She moans, interrupting.

"-that _actually count._" I poke her playfully. "That guy, or girl, was being dumb. I mean, this whole endeavor is to improve your parties, right?"

"Yeah…"

"Then, you know that you'll make your parties better by never inviting that butt-swipe to any party ever again, because they'll obviously drag everypony down with them." I earn a giggle from Pinkie.

"Yeah. I mean, I may still invite them, but they'll never get a singing invitation, and they'll always get less confetti than anypony else."

"You're too kind, Pinkie." I smile. "Feel better?"

"Kind of. I.. I think I was just tired, and stressed. And I can't seem to relax." Looking at her, I can see she's right. She's still not back to normal, though I suppose I shouldn't have expected her to bounce back immediately. I look around the room, wondering what more I can do. I spot the open closet, though the double wide doors are more like double-double wide, and the instrument collection inside. A violin, and a small electric piano are present amongst the countless others. A wonderful idea pulls together in my mind.

"Hey, wait here a minute. I'm going to do something." I pause a second, adding, "Close your eyes too." I say and stand up, heading toward the closet. I shift the violin and piano out of the unusual clutter, and set the piano up on the floor. I tune both quickly, surprised to find both are already fairly well done. I clear my throat and start:

"My name is just Echo,

and I am here to say,

I want to make you smile,

I want to brighten up your day.

I know how you feel now,

I know you're feeling blue,

But cheering up my friend is what I'm tryin' to do.

Cause I'd love to see you smile, smile, smile,

Yes I would.

It'd fill my heart with sunshine all the while,

Oh it would.

All I really want's a smile, smile, smile,

From a happy Pinkie Pie."

I sing the song slow, like a faster-paced lullaby. I work the piano to the original tune, but accentuate with the violin. The words, I make up on the fly, based vaguely on Vinyl Scratch's e.d.m. song. When I'm done I look over to Pinkie, whose face is wide with surprise and delight.

"Y-you like?" I ask, when she says nothing.

"Wowie wow, of course I do! I didn't know ponies liked me 'n' Vinyl's song! I, I didn't know anypony really listened to the words!"

"Wait, what? You and Vinyl's song? You worked on the 'Smile and Dance' song?"

"Yeah, it's based on my original song. Vinyl heard me singing it one day and asked if we could do an electronic remix of it, so we rewrote the words a little and she added all the cool techno sounds and alllll the instruments, and I gave my rights to it to a charity in case it made big bucks but there's not a lot of radios or music magazines in Ponyville and Vinyl's been out of town for months and won't be back til next week for the party so I had no way of knowing if it was popular or anything and now I know it must be at least a little!" She jumps up, straight up, and squeals. "Wowie, how'd you change the words like that on the go?" She jumps around me, finally back to normal. I guess I was wrong on the 'not jumping back' thing.

"I, uh, music's my talent. Specifically with these." I hold up the violin and gesture to the piano. "I'm really good at playing them simultaneously, but anymore and I have to be playing something slow. It's why I sang the Smile and Dance song slow, so I could concentrate on all three."

"Woah." Is all she says, her eyes enormously stretched out of proportion with eagerness.

"Uh…" The room is quiet as she just stares at me, minutes stretching on for a long time.

"Well, go on." She finally says.

"What?"

"Talk about your talent, or, or demonstrate! It's awesome! I've never met another pony that can play more than one instrument at once or who has it as their talent!"

"'Another pony'? You know _another_ one?"

"Yeah, me! But I can only play one song, and it's a special one to lure away parasprites, and it's actually really annoying and loud. So really, you're the only pony I know of who can really play more than one instrument at a time!"

"Wow, okay. Well, uh.. what's your favorite song?"

"I have a lot, but secretly-" She knocks our heads together roughly, eyes flitting from one end of the room to the other, "-I really like musicals. Hinny of the Hills and the Phantom Pony of the Opera are my favorite favorite!"

"No way! I'd never guess that, Pinkie!" Such classic musicals for such a modernly upbeat mare; truly I'd never fit them to a pony like Pinkie. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, not everypony wears all their loves on their sleeves.

"Not many ponies do!"

"Well, you don't seem to have a pipe organ here… but I think I can play… Angel of Music and Wandering Foal, from the graveyard scene." I pull the chimes out of the closet, and the small harp.

"Aw, yeah! Do it, do it!" She encourages.

"Okay, okay! Here." I bring the violin in front of my face, bringing to mind the score. "I can't sing, though, because there're four instruments I'll be playing…."


End file.
